8 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.” Acts 7:59–60
In the days of Denho the Syriac Churches honour Mar Stephanos, the first martyr. After his great speech before the council, “filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” What the Baptist saw at the Jordan, the open heavens, Stephen sees at his death. They drag him out and stone him; he prays like his Master: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit… Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” A young man named Saul stands by, guarding their coats.
Jesus had foretold it: “I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify.” Martyrdom is not failure; it is the Gospel lived to the end. Paul, once Saul, later praises the household of Stephanas, whose name means crown, for devoting themselves “to the service of the saints”. Today is the name day of Bishop Philipos Mar Stephanos; we pray for him and for all who serve. Stephen began as a deacon serving tables and ended with the crown of martyrdom: service and witness are one road.
Theme: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
Stephen sees heaven open, forgives, and shows that service and witness are one road.
“As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.” Daniel 7:13
“But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Acts 7:55
Apply: Look to heaven in prayer in your next trial.
“Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.” Psalm 31:5
“While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.” Acts 7:59–60
Apply: Pray by name for someone who has hurt you.
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”” Isaiah 6:8
“Now, brothers and sisters, you know that members of the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints;” 1 Corinthians 16:15
Apply: Offer one service to the parish this week.
The first martyr shows the whole Christian life: faith, forgiveness, service.
His prayer converted Saul; ours can change hearts too.
Take-home resolution: Forgive one person from the heart this week.
Dear friends, in the days after Denho the Syriac Churches honour Mar Stephanos, the first martyr. At the Jordan the Baptist saw the heavens open. At his death Stephen sees the same: I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56).
Jesus is standing, as if rising to welcome his witness. The council covers their ears and rushes at him. They stone him. A young man named Saul guards their coats.
And Stephen prays as Jesus prayed on the Cross: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he kneels and cries out: Lord, do not hold this sin against them (Acts 7:59–60). He dies forgiving. Later, that young Saul becomes Paul the Apostle. The martyr's prayer bore fruit.
Jesus had foretold it: I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill (Matthew 23:34). Stephen began as a deacon serving tables and ended with the crown of martyrdom. Service and witness are one road.
Today is the name day of Bishop Philipos Mar Stephanos; we pray for him. Let us ask for Stephen's faith to see heaven, his love to forgive, and his humility to serve. Amen.
Children, Stephen loved Jesus very much. Even when people hurt him, he prayed for them. Let us pray for anyone who has hurt us.
Lord Jesus, you stood at the right hand of God to receive your martyr Stephen. Give us his faith to see heaven open, his love to forgive our enemies, and his humility to serve. Bless Bishop Philipos Mar Stephanos on his name day. Amen.
In the days of Denho the Church remembers Mar Stephanos, the first to die for Christ. The three readings fit together around him. Acts tells how he died, seeing the heavens open and praying for those who killed him. The few lines from 1 Corinthians, about a household led by a man named Stephanas, show that the word for a deacon's work, service, belongs to every faithful home. In Matthew, Jesus says that those he sends will suffer, so that Stephen's death does not take the Church by surprise.
Setting.
Stephen is one of the seven chosen to serve the tables of the widows in Jerusalem, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5). He also preaches and works signs, and he is brought before the council (6:8–15). Chapter 7 gives his long speech, the longest in Acts, which retells the history of Israel from Abraham to Solomon. It ends with hard words that sound like the prophets of Israel themselves. Today's reading begins at the moment those words strike home.
Stephen is himself a Jew, speaking to his own people, in the name of Jesus, a Jew. Luke describes the anger of those in that room on that day. The passage says nothing against the Jewish people as such (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”” (7:56)
Elsewhere the risen Lord is said to be seated at God's right hand (Psalm 110:1). Here he is standing. The text does not explain why. A common reading is that he rises to receive his witness, or to stand up for him before the Father, while an earthly court condemns him.
“Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.” (7:58)
Stoning outside the camp was the penalty the Law gave for blasphemy, and the witnesses were to act first (Leviticus 24:14–16; Deuteronomy 17:7). Scholars differ on whether Luke describes a formal sentence or the violence of an angry crowd. Saul appears here for the first time, as a bystander who approves (8:1).
“While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”” (7:59)
On the Cross Jesus prayed, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Stephen now says the same prayer to Jesus, which shows what the first Christians believed about him.
“Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.” (7:60)
This echoes Jesus' own prayer of forgiveness (Luke 23:34). The Greek says literally that he “fell asleep”, the gentle Christian word for the death of the faithful.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism calls martyrdom “the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith” (CCC 2473) and sees the forgiveness of enemies as a sign that love is stronger than sin, a witness the martyrs give (CCC 2843–2844). St Augustine said that if Stephen had not prayed, the Church would not have had Paul (in substance). The prayer of the dying man bore fruit in the young man holding the coats.
Setting.
These verses come from the closing lines of the letter, among Paul's travel plans and greetings. A small party from Corinth has reached him at Ephesus (16:8). Paul had baptized the household of Stephanas himself (1:16). In a Church torn by rival groups (1:10–12), he asks the Corinthians to respect those who serve. The likely reason the verses are read today is the likeness of the names, Stephanas and Stephanos, and the word “service”.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“members of the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints;” (16:15)
A family can be a ministry. In the New Testament “the saints” are all the baptized, not only those the Church later canonised.
“for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. So give recognition to such persons.” (16:18)
Paul, who has written so strongly in this letter, is honest about needing his friends. Quiet people who refresh the spirits of others deserve honour.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council calls the Christian family a domestic Church (Lumen Gentium 11; CCC 1656–1657). The tradition sees in the seven of Acts 6 the beginnings of the diaconate, and Stephen as the first among deacons; the service Paul praises here in one household shows the same spirit in the home.
Setting.
Jesus is in Jerusalem, in the Temple, in the last days before his Passion. In chapter 23 he speaks a series of “woes” to the scribes and Pharisees. These are prophetic warnings, of a kind Israel's own prophets spoke to their own people (see Isaiah 5:8–23). They are addressed to particular leaders (23:29), and Jesus speaks as a Jew within his people. The verses of today close that speech.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town,” (23:34)
Jesus has said the same thing to the Twelve (10:17–23). Stephen, stoned in Jerusalem, is the first of these witnesses whose death Acts records.
“from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.” (23:35)
Abel is the first innocent man killed in the Bible. A Zechariah son of Jehoiada was stoned in the Temple court (2 Chronicles 24:20–22), and Chronicles stands last in the Hebrew Bible, so the phrase may mean “from the first to the last”. The name “son of Barachiah” belongs to the prophet of Zechariah 1:1; Luke's parallel leaves it out (Luke 11:51), and commentators explain the difference in several ways, with no agreed answer.
How the Church reads it.
The Church firmly reads these words as a prophetic warning, not as a sentence on a people. The Jews “should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures” (Nostra Aetate 4), and the Catechism refuses to lay the guilt of Christ's death on Jews as a whole (CCC 597–598). The Catechism adds that all sinners were the authors of Christ's Passion (CCC 598). The same warning stands over any Christian who silences a messenger of God.
Do words like “upon you may come all the righteous blood” mean that the Jewish people carry a curse?
No. The Church teaches the opposite (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597). Jesus speaks in the manner of Israel's prophets to the leaders before him. Stephen himself, dying at the hands of an angry crowd, prays that the sin not be held against them; Christians can do no less.
The Syriac Churches honour Mar Stephanos in the days of Denho, close to the Lord's Baptism. What was seen at the Jordan, the open heavens, Stephen sees at his death. A deacon serving at the Holy Qurbono stands in his line: he serves at the altar and among the people, and the two belong together.