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The Dark Side of Christmas
Merry Fifth Day of Christmas! If you'd like to know more about how light and darkness mixes in Christianity, the liturgical calendar will show you more clearly than almost any sermon in words. The feasts around Christmas notably commingle birth and death. Christmas is intensely happy--but not in a jolly hockey sticks sort of happy way. Christmas is serious happiness.
In addition to still being Christmas, today is the Feast of St. Thomas a Becket (here), a martyr. But so much has been written about this martyr--it is to his shrine that the Canterbury pilgrims are heading, and, of course, there is the T.S. Eliot play, "Murder in the Cathedral," in the last century--that I am going to indulge myself by writing a bit about another martyred saint. Actually, he's the first martyred saint--St. Stephen, whose feast is celebrated Dec. 26, a day I did not blog.
It is interesting that the most important birth in history is, liturgically speaking, followed immediately by a death. Patrick Henry Reardon believes that it is quite likely that "St. Stephen's is among the oldest feast days in the Christian Church. Moreover, except for the days of Holy Week and the Paschal cycle itself, it is possible that the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of St. Stephen is the oldest feast day in the Christian liturgical calendar."
St. Stephen was a Greek Christian who, tried by the Sanhedrin, was stonned to death outside the city wall. As he died, he saw the heavens opened (from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer):
"Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and, and said, Behold I see the heavens opened, and the son of man standing on the right hand of God."
The crowd "stopped their ears" and rushed upon Stephen, stoning him to death. (Here is another good telling of Stephen's story; as always, CaNN is also on the case.) As Amy Welborn points out, Stephen's martyrdom is the dark side of Christmas:
While Stephen was being stoned to death, "the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." Saul became Paul, who became St. Paul, one of the greatest saints of Christendom. Stephen's death was just a beginning. I love the mixture of light and dark and how Christianity brings light from darkness.
In addition to still being Christmas, today is the Feast of St. Thomas a Becket (here), a martyr. But so much has been written about this martyr--it is to his shrine that the Canterbury pilgrims are heading, and, of course, there is the T.S. Eliot play, "Murder in the Cathedral," in the last century--that I am going to indulge myself by writing a bit about another martyred saint. Actually, he's the first martyred saint--St. Stephen, whose feast is celebrated Dec. 26, a day I did not blog.
It is interesting that the most important birth in history is, liturgically speaking, followed immediately by a death. Patrick Henry Reardon believes that it is quite likely that "St. Stephen's is among the oldest feast days in the Christian Church. Moreover, except for the days of Holy Week and the Paschal cycle itself, it is possible that the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of St. Stephen is the oldest feast day in the Christian liturgical calendar."
St. Stephen was a Greek Christian who, tried by the Sanhedrin, was stonned to death outside the city wall. As he died, he saw the heavens opened (from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer):
"Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and, and said, Behold I see the heavens opened, and the son of man standing on the right hand of God."
The crowd "stopped their ears" and rushed upon Stephen, stoning him to death. (Here is another good telling of Stephen's story; as always, CaNN is also on the case.) As Amy Welborn points out, Stephen's martyrdom is the dark side of Christmas:
I say that many of the Defenders of Christmas have it almost as wrong as the secularists. Their vision of Christmas--centered on words, a rather generic baby, and nostalgic visions of families and fireplaces--actually gets no closer to the real Real Meaning of Christmas than do generic wishes for peace and joy in this holiday season. ...
What they forget, neglect or conveniently ignore is what we can not-too-dramatically call the Dark Side of Christmas.
The really traditional Christian remembrance of the Nativity is not about sweetness. It is about awe, fear, and trembling, and it is shot through with hints of suffering to come. ...
We might forget, we might wrap up Christmas in good cheer, but Christian tradition doesn't. It's striking that the next day--the very next day--after Christmas, the Church remembers not glad tidings, angels, and shepherd boys, but a bloody death by stoning. St. Stephen it is, the first Christian martyr.
St. Stephen is followed by St. John on December 27th, who may not have met a violent death, but who, the tradition tells us, died in a prison of sorts, in exile for his faith, far away from the 'civilized' powers that had sent him there.
While Stephen was being stoned to death, "the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." Saul became Paul, who became St. Paul, one of the greatest saints of Christendom. Stephen's death was just a beginning. I love the mixture of light and dark and how Christianity brings light from darkness.
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