Sermons to the People 315.1–316.5

How the most blessed Stephen was ordained a deacon together with six others, himself the seventh, and how he came to the crown on high, you heard when the reading itself was read. This first merit of the first martyr is commended to your Love: that while for other martyrs we find Acts which we can recite on their feasts, his passion is in a canonical book. The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the canon of the Scriptures. That book begins to be read from the Lord's day of Easter, as the custom of the Church has it. In this book, then, whose title is the Acts of the Apostles, you heard how the seven deacons were chosen and ordained by the apostles, among whom was holy Stephen. First the apostles, after them the deacons. And yet a martyr came first from the deacons rather than from the apostles: the first victim came from the lambs rather than from the rams.

How great a likeness of passion he had with his Lord and Savior! False witnesses against him, as against the Lord, and about the very same matter. For you know and remember what the false witnesses said against the Lord Christ: “We heard him say, I destroy this temple, and after three days I build another, a new one.” But the Lord had not said this; rather, the falsehood chose to be close to the truth. How were they false witnesses? They had heard him say, “Destroy this temple, and after three days I will raise it up.” And the evangelist says, “But he was speaking of the temple of his body.” The false witnesses, in place of what was said, “Destroy,” said “I destroy.” They changed a little in the syllables; but they were worse false witnesses the more they tried to come close to the truth by slander. And what was alleged against this man? “We heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this temple and will change the custom of the Law.” They were giving false testimony, and prophesying true things. As that Caiaphas, their teacher, the chief of the priests, when he gave counsel to the Jews that Christ should be killed, said this: “It is expedient that one die, rather than that the whole nation perish.” And the evangelist says, “This he did not say of himself; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Christ must die for the nation.” What is this, brothers? Great is the power of truth. People hate the truth, and prophesy the truth without knowing it. They do not act; they are acted upon. So these false witnesses came forward, like the false witnesses on whose testimony Christ was killed.

They brought him into the council, so as to have a greater judgment. But the friend of Christ, when he had stated his case, preached the truth of his Lord. About to die, he speaks out: why should a holy tongue keep silent before the ungodly? Why should he not die for the truth? In this one thing he was unlike his Lord, for the sake of a certain mystery, as far as the likeness of passion goes. For the Lord is God in the excellence of his majesty. The Lord, when he was led to his passion, chose to keep silent when questioned: this man did not keep silent. Why did the Lord choose to keep silent? Because it had been foretold of him: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer without a voice, so he did not open his mouth.” But why did this man refuse to keep silent? Because it had been said by the Lord himself: “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops.” How did holy Stephen preach upon the housetop? Because he trod down his house of clay, the flesh. For he who does not fear death treads the flesh down. First he set out to them the law of God from the beginning, from Abraham to Moses, up to the giving of the law, up to the entry into the land of promise, so as to show that the testimony on which they were stirring up their slander was not true. Then from Moses he gave them a great likeness to Christ. Moses was rejected by them, and he freed them: rejected, he freed them. He did not return evil for evil; no, he returned good for evil. So too the Lord Christ, rejected by the Jews, will himself afterwards free them.

But for now, whoever dies is dead. The Jews whom you see will have the time of their deliverance, through the very one whom they rejected; but they do not know it. Those who blaspheme now are perishing: then there will be others, not these. When we say these things, we promise salvation not to these people but to that people. The nation will be delivered, not these. Pay attention and take a comparison. Does God not now deliver the Gentiles? All the nations believe in Christ, and from children of the devil they become children of God. Yet those ancestors of ours from whom we were born, who worshiped idols, perished with their idols.

You have heard, and you have seen the spectacle with your hearts. The sound was in your ears, the vision in your minds. You watched the great contest of holy Stephen, who in the contest was stoned. Who was he? One who had long been teaching the law. What law was he teaching? The one they received on tablets of stone. Rightly, having become stony, they stoned the friend of Christ. “Stiff-necked” (after teaching he began to rebuke), “and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill?” He seems to rage: a fierce tongue, a gentle heart. He cried out, and he loved. He raged, and wanted them to be saved. Who would not have believed him angry, who would not have believed him inflamed with the torches of hatred, when he said, “Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears”? Meanwhile the Lord looked down from heaven and saw. Heaven was opened: he saw Jesus, as if encouraging his athlete. Nor did he keep silent about what he saw: “Behold,” he said, “I see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the majesty.” When they heard this, as though what he had said were blasphemy, they stopped their ears and ran for stones. In the Psalm it had been said, “Like a deaf asp that stops its ears.” They displayed exactly what had been foretold of them. He began to be stoned. Now consider him raging; recall the harsh words: “Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears.” He was like an enemy: as though, if it could be done, he wanted to kill them all. Let him say this who does not see the heart. His heart was hidden; but his last words were heard, and his hidden things lay open when he was stoned. “Lord Jesus,” he said, “receive my spirit.” To you I have spoken; for you I die. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Because you have helped, the one you receive has conquered. “Receive my spirit,” from the hands of those who hate yours. This holy Stephen said standing. And after this he knelt, and said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Where is “Stiff-necked”? Is this all you were crying out? Is this all your raging? Outwardly you cried out, and inwardly you prayed.

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”: this he said standing. For he was claiming a debt when he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He was claiming the debt that had been promised to the martyrs: the debt of which the Apostle says, “For I am already being offered, and the time of my release is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day.” He will award, he will award what he owes. He who had been a debtor of punishments afterwards began to hold God as the bestower of rewards. Why was the apostle Paul a debtor of punishments? Because he was an enemy of the Church, because he was a persecutor. Hear him: “I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.” “I am not worthy,” says the one who is worthy. Why are you not worthy? To suffer penalties, to enter hell, to be tormented for my deserts: of this I was worthy; to be an apostle I was not worthy. Where then did you get this, of which you were not worthy? He went on: “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” By my own evil I was what I was; by the gift of God I am what I am. So, in order afterwards to claim what was owed, he first received what was not owed. What debt afterwards? “There remains for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day.” He will award it to me, it is owed to me: but first what was not owed. What? “I am not worthy to be called an apostle; but by the grace of God I am what I am.” So too holy Stephen said, “Lord Jesus,” standing, with confidence, because he had served well as a soldier, had fought well, had not given way to the enemy, had trodden fear down, had despised the flesh, had conquered the world and the devil: that is why he stood when he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

While this man was claiming his debt, the apostle Paul was piling up debt for himself. The one was asking for a good debt; the other was adding to an evil debt. For what do you think, brothers? When Stephen was being stoned, as you heard, though perhaps you did not notice, the false witnesses who were going to stone Stephen laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. This was Saul, and afterwards Paul: Saul the persecutor, Paul the preacher. For the name Saul comes from Saul. Saul was the persecutor of King David. Such as Saul had been toward David, such was Saul toward Stephen. But afterwards, when he had been called from heaven, called, thrown down, changed, when he began as an apostle to preach the word of God, he changed his name and called himself Paul. And why did he choose this? Because Paulus means small, Paulus means little. We are accustomed to speak like this: “I will see you after a little,” that is, after a short while. Why then Paul? “I am the least of the apostles.” Great, divine spectacles! He who was a persecutor at the killing of Stephen afterwards became a preacher of the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to hear how much he raged at that killing? He kept the clothes of those who stoned, so as to stone with the hands of all. So after holy Stephen, standing, had claimed his debt, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” he looked at his enemies, who were making an evil debt for themselves by stoning him and were adding to that treasury of which the apostle Paul says, “But by your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God”: he looked at them, and pitied them, and knelt for them. For himself he stood; for them he knelt. He distinguished the righteous man from the sinners: for the righteous man he asked standing, because he was claiming a reward; for the sinners he knelt, because he knew how hard it would be to be heard for people so wicked. Although righteous, although set under the very crown, he did not presume, but knelt: considering not what he himself deserved to receive by asking, but what they deserved from whom he wished to remove dreadful punishments. “Lord,” he said, “do not hold this sin against them.”

He has Stephen as a disciple who imitates him. What Stephen did humbly, Christ did on high: what Stephen did bowed down to the earth, Christ did hanging on the wood. For remember that he too said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” He was sitting on the teacher's chair of the cross, and was teaching Stephen the rule of godliness. O good Teacher, you have spoken well, you have taught well. See, your disciple prays for his enemies, prays for those who stone him. He showed how he ought to imitate you: the humble one the exalted, the creature the creator, the victim the mediator, the man the God-man: God, but on the cross a man; Christ God, but on the cross a man, when he said with a clear voice, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Someone says to himself: “He prayed for his enemies because he is Christ, because he is God, because he is the Only-begotten; who am I to do this?” If your Lord is too much for you, do you not know that Stephen is your fellow servant? If you see, my brothers, that these things came first in the Gospel, let no one say in his heart, “Who does that?” See, Stephen did it: of himself? Did he do it from his own resources? If he did it by the gift of God, did he go in and shut the door against you? Did he cross the bridge and cut it down? Is it too much for you? Ask, you too. The fountain flows; it has not dried up.

And so I say to your Love, my brothers: train yourselves, as much as you can, to show gentleness even toward your enemies. Bridle the anger that goads you to revenge. For anger is a scorpion. If it has roused you with its inner flames, you think it something great if you take revenge on your enemy. If you want to take revenge on your enemy, turn against your anger itself: for it is your enemy, which kills your soul. O good man (for I will not say, bad man; I would rather say what I want you to be than what you are), good man, what will your enemy do to you? What will he do, however much he can, even if God allows him all he desires? He desires to shed your blood. That is difficult, indeed, and rare are the enemies who rage even to death. Even enemies, when they see those they persecute afflicted, usually turn their anger to mercy. You will hardly find an enemy who rages to death. But suppose it: to death. Picture for yourself such an enemy, who rages to death. What will he do? What the Jews did to Stephen: punishment for themselves, a crown for him. Will your enemy kill you as though you would never die, as though you would live for ever? Your enemy will do to you what a fever would have done some day: if he kills you, he will be like your fever. So by killing you will he harm you? No: rather, if you die well, and love him, he will add something to your heavenly reward. Do you not know how much those who stoned him gave to holy Stephen? Did they know that a crown would be awarded to him for his goodness, and punishment to them for their malice? How much did the devil give? He made all the martyrs for us. But will he go away from here on that account? No: from his benefits, which he did not intend, he will be charged with what he himself desired, not with what God was making of him. So your enemy, whoever he is, even to death, will do you no harm.

Anger: see how much harm it does. Recognize your enemy: recognize the one you fight with in the theater of your breast. A narrow theater; but God is watching: there tame your enemy. Do you want to see how truly she is your enemy? I will show you now. You are going to pray to God: the hour will come for you to say, “Our Father, who are in heaven.” You will come to that verse, “Forgive us our debts.” What follows? “As we also forgive our debtors.” There that enemy stands against you. She hedges the way of your prayer: she raises a wall, and there is no way for you to pass. You have said it all here: “Our Father.” You ran on: “Forgive us our debts.” And what then? “As we also forgive our debtors.” See, that adversary contradicts; not before the curtain, but within: in the very inner chamber of your heart, there she cries out against you and contradicts. What kind of enemy is she, brothers, who contradicts “As we also forgive”? You are not permitted to rage against your enemy: rage against this one. “Better is he who conquers anger than he who takes a city,” Scripture says. What I said just now is written: “Better is he who conquers anger than he who takes a city.” Does not a warrior general, when he comes against some enemies and finds a fortified city, equipped with arms, excellent, resisting him, seek a triumph if he takes it, if he conquers it, if he overthrows it? But as Scripture tells, “Better is he who conquers anger than he who takes a city.” It is in your hand. You cannot kill her; you can restrain her. If you are strong, conquer anger, and spare the city. I see you are attentive; I know how well you have taken it. May God be present in your contests, so that it may profit you that you watched the contest of so great a martyr; so that, as you saw him conquer and cheered him as he conquered, so you too may conquer in your heart.

The most blessed martyr Stephen, most glorious in Christ, has already fed us full with his own discourse; but after that feast I set before you, from the sermon of my ministry, a second table, as it were. And what sweeter thing do I find to put on it than Christ and the martyr himself? For he is the Lord, this man the servant; but Stephen, from a servant, became a friend. We are without doubt servants: may he grant that we may also be friends. Yet what kind of servants? Such as can sing, with the face of a sound conscience, “But to me your friends, O God, are greatly honored.” Before holy Stephen was killed in the open and crowned in secret, you heard how he was chosen by the apostles. Among those deacons he is named first, as Peter among the apostles. So, having been ordained by the apostles, in a short time he went before his ordainers to his passion: he was ordained by them, but crowned before them. What then did you hear when his passion was read? “But Stephen, full of grace and the Holy Spirit, did wonders and great signs among the people, through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Understand who did them, and through whose name. You who know how to love Stephen, love him in Christ. For this is what he wants, this is pleasing to him: in this he rejoices, this he accepts. For he did not want to boast of his own name before those who stoned him. Consider whom he confessed when he was being stoned; whom he confessed on earth, whom he saw in heaven; for whom he handed over his flesh, to whom he commended his soul. For do we read, or can we read anywhere in sound teaching, that Jesus did or does signs through the name of Stephen? Stephen did them, but through the name of Christ. He does this now also: whatever you see happening through the memorial of Stephen happens in the name of Christ; so that Christ may be commended, Christ adored, Christ awaited as judge of the living and the dead, and so that those who love him may stand at his right hand. For when he comes, some will stand at the right, some at the left: blessed those at the right; wretched those at the left.

Yet let the most blessed Stephen imitate his Lord. In a wonderful way he suffered among hard stones, throwing what but what they were? So that you may know that he suffered hard men, he said this to them: “Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.” You want to die, you hasten to be stoned, you burn to be crowned. “You always resist the Holy Spirit.” When he said such things, they raged and gnashed their teeth. Add, Stephen, add what they cannot bear, add what they cannot endure: add that for which they may stone you, so that we may find something to celebrate. The heavens were opened: the martyr saw the head of the martyrs; he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father: he saw, so as not to keep silent. They did not see, but jeered; and they did not see because they envied. He did not keep silent about what he saw, so that he might come to him whom he saw. “Behold,” he says, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the majesty.” They held their ears, as if against blasphemy. You recognize them in the Psalm: “Like the deaf asp,” it says, “that stops its ears, so as not to hear the voice of the charmer and the medicine compounded by the wise.” For as asps are said, when they are charmed so that they may not break out and come forth from their holes, to press one ear to the ground and stop the other with their tail, and yet the charmer brings them out: so these men were still hissing in their holes while they seethed in their hearts. They were not yet breaking out: they stopped their ears. Now let them break out, let them appear for what they are: let them run to the stones. They ran, they stoned.

What did Stephen do? What? First consider him whom the good friend was imitating. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he hung on the cross, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” This he said as man, as crucified, as born of a woman, as clothed with flesh; as about to die for us, as about to be in the tomb, as about to rise on the third day, as about to ascend into heaven. For all these things belong to the man. As man, then: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” He said, “Father”; Stephen, “Lord Jesus.” And what did he say? “Receive my spirit.” You said it to the Father; I say it to you. I recognize the Mediator. You came to lift up one lying down; you did not fall with me. “Receive,” he says, “my spirit.” This he prayed for himself; then another thing came to his mind, in which he might imitate his Lord. Recall the words of the one hanging on the wood, and attend to the words of the one being stoned as he confessed. What did the Lord say? “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Perhaps Stephen was then among those very people who did not know what they were doing. For many believed afterwards. And it is uncertain to us where the most blessed Stephen came from: whether from those who had believed in Christ earlier, like Nicodemus, who came to him by night, who was found worthy to be buried where Stephen was too, since it was through him that Stephen also was found; whether, then, he was among these, or perhaps among those who, after the Lord's ascension, when the Holy Spirit came, when the disciples were filled and spoke in the tongues of all nations, were cut to the heart and said to the apostles, “Men, brothers, what shall we do? Tell us.” For they despaired of salvation, because they had killed the Savior. And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and you will receive the Holy Spirit, and your sins will be forgiven you.” All of them, do you think? What sin remained, when even that sin was forgiven by which the forgiver of sins was killed? What is worse than to kill Christ? This was blotted out. What then? Perhaps Stephen was among them. If he was among them, that prayer availed for him too, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Yet Saul too was among them. When Stephen the lamb was being stoned, Saul was still a wolf, still thirsting for blood; still thinking his own hands too few to stone with, he kept the clothes of those who stoned. So, recalling what had been said for him, if he too was among those of whom the Lord spoke when he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” imitating his Lord even in this very thing, so as to be his friend, he too said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” But how did he say it? With his knee on the ground. He commended himself standing; when he prayed for his enemies, he knelt. Why did he commend himself standing? Because he was commending a righteous man. Why did he kneel for them? Because he was praying for the wicked. “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Do you think Saul heard these words? He heard them, but laughed at them; and yet he belonged to Stephen's prayer. He was still running riot, and already Stephen was being heard on his behalf. For you know already, to say something of Saul, afterwards Paul; certainly you know: in the same book it is written how Paul came to believe. After Stephen was killed, the Church in Jerusalem suffered a most severe persecution. The brothers who were there were put to flight: only the apostles remained; the others were driven away. But like burning torches, wherever they came, they set things alight. Foolish Jews: when they drove them out of Jerusalem, they were throwing coals of fire into the forest. And Saul, for whom the killing of Stephen was not enough, what did he do still (we gladly recall it, because we now honor him)? He received letters from the priests and scribes, so that wherever he found men of this Way, that is, Christians, he might bring them bound to suffer punishments such as Stephen had suffered. And Saul went in anger; the wolf went to the folds, to the Lord's flocks: like a rabid wolf he thirsted for blood, panted for slaughter, went on his way. And he from above: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Wolf, wolf, why are you persecuting the lamb? When I was killed, I killed the lion. Why are you persecuting me? Strip off the wolf: from a wolf be a sheep, from a sheep a shepherd.

This is a most delightful picture, where you see holy Stephen being stoned, and you see Saul keeping the clothes of those who stone him. This is Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus; this is Paul, servant of Christ Jesus. You heard the voice well: “Why are you persecuting me?” You were thrown down, you were raised up: the persecutor laid low, the preacher raised up. Speak, let us hear: “Paul, servant of Christ Jesus, through the will of God.” Was it through your will, O Saul? What came through your will we know; we have seen your fruits: Stephen was killed through your will. Through the will of God: we see your fruits; everywhere you are read, everywhere you are recited, everywhere you turn hostile hearts to Christ, everywhere as a good shepherd you gather great flocks. With him whom you stoned, you reign with Christ. You both see one another there; you both now hear our sermon; both of you, pray for us. He will hear you both who crowned you: one first, the other afterwards; one who suffered persecution, the other who persecuted. Then the one was a lamb, the other a wolf; but now both are lambs. Let the lambs recognize us, and see us in the flock of Christ; let them commend us by their prayers, that they may obtain a quiet and peaceful life for the Church of their Lord.