One Day At a Time
Yesterday, the readings were uplifting, full of celebration and light. Today, they plunge into martyrdom and the darkness of family members turning on each other. They are jarring at first glance.
I always find the day after Christmas a day of peace. It is a day to heave a sigh of relief. Today, depending on what happened around the Christmas dinner table, is a day to breathe, sit on the couch, stay in pajamas until late, offer a prayer of thanksgiving, or, if necessary, ask for forgiveness.
Christmas, which is meant to be joyful, peaceful, and focused on the birth of Jesus, doesn’t always meet my expectations. It takes patience, perseverance, and prayer to stay on the right track and remember what this season is about amidst the hubbub of a large family.
I succumb every year to the season's busyness and look forward to this “day after” when I can appreciate the music, the decorations, the nativity sets and their significance. The “day after” is, for me, a day to celebrate and offer thanksgiving, so I struggle to find peace in today's readings about the first martyr, St. Stephen and what we might be called to in the name of the Lord. On second thought, this is life – full of light and darkness, ups and downs, each day its own.
Today is my brother’s feast day. He is the brother right after me in the line of six siblings. He was always a man of God, and it was not surprising that he entered the seminary for his high school years. He stayed until he was a sophomore in college and then transferred to Santa Clara University, where he studied law and eventually became a judge.
As Stephen, the first martyr, was a defender of the faith, my brother has been his whole life. Today, he faces an illness that promises no mercy, and yet he faces it with “grace and wonder,” much as his namesake, St. Stephen, faced from those who took up stones to kill him.
The first reading and the gospel offer an encouraging aspect—the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is a guide in times of trouble. St. Stephen implored the Holy Spirit as he was pursued, and Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be with us when “You will be hated by all because of my name.”
My prayer today, and most days when I take the time, is to live in the moment, one day at a time with the knowledge that God, the Divine, the Great Unknown is with us.
Anne Hansen