Today is, of course, Boxing Day, December 26. And while some are running off to the malls for bargains, others are adding up the damage and realizing just how much Christmas can cost them!

And so are we Catholics, but for a different reason.

Today is the feast of St. Stephen, the Deacon  – the first martyr of Jesus Christ. I’ve always found it fascinating that his feast day immediately follows Christmas. It is as if Holy Mother Church, in her wisdom and through the liturgical calendar, is giving us a sober reminder after the great Feast that there is a cost to Christianity, to being a believer in Christ. It will cost you everything, even your very life – one way or another. No less an authority than Christ himself affirmed it: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”. It can meen a dramatic martyrdom like Stephen’s. But for most of us it will mean the hidden martyrdom of everyday death to self in order to stay alive in Christ.

But there is a far greater cost to not being a Catholic Christian. For rejecting Christ comes with a cost that one truly cannot afford to pay. It means a life lived apart from the Author of life, disconnected from ultimate Reality, devoid of the forgiveness of sins, and, if the situation persists, an eternity in which one will never, ever see God’s face.

Because he remained faithful to the end, Stephen did see God, and beholds that Beatific Vision now, and forevermore: “Look! I see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”. If we are faithful to the end, so will we.

Postscript: Recognize who’s in the background of the painting above? Acts tells us that those who killed Stephen “laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul”. Saul, persecutor of the early Church, was there, an accessory to Stephen’s martyrdom. As Stephen prayed for his executioners, just as his Master did, one must think that that prayer was especially efficacious. As the Church has always taught: if it were not for Stephen’s prayer, Saul would have never become Saint Paul. In this Pauline year, let us always remember that no one is beyond God’s saving grace – that everyone can (and should) become a saint.

Merry Christmas!

Only two of the Gospels, Matthew and Luke, include accounts of the Nativity and childhood of our Lord. John’s gospel has a pre-infancy narrative (to put it mildly), focusing on the pre-incarnate, eternal Christ, God from all eternity before he took flesh from the womb of the Virgin. Mark also omits this material, although the incipit (opening words) of his gospel contain perhaps the most arresting Christmas message of all:

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).

With this short sentence, Mark has immediately captured the attention of the entire world, both Jew and Gentile. It’s like a slap in the face, or a dousing with ice-cold water. To paraphrase Saint Paul, first for the Jew: Jesus is the Christ. And Christ is, of course, not Jesus’ last name, but the Greek form of Messiah.

Then for the Gentile: Jesus is the “Son of God”. Mark’s gospel was originally addressed to Rome, and what stands behind it is the eyewitness testimony to Christ’s life of Peter, the Church’s first pope, martyred in the Eternal City. But “Son of God” did not mean to the first-century readers of the gospel what it means to many today. For the Romans, the only “Son of God” they knew of was the emperor. Julius Caesar, the first of the Caesars, was postumously declared to be a god. Every Caesar afterwards, from Augustus on (who reigned as Emperor when Christ was born), was declared to be the divine “Son of God” and “Universal Savior of Human Life”. Many ancient Roman inscriptions have been uncovered to this effect. Even Augustus’ birthday was declared to be “the birthday of the god”.

Moreover, each time Rome won a military victory, or a new Emperor took the throne, it was published throughout the empire as “Good News”. In fact, the very reason why Jesus was derided in his passion by the Roman soldiers the way he was (the purple robe, the crown of thorns as opposed to a garland of laurel, and the mock homage paid to him – “Hail, King of the Jews!”) was to imitate, in jest, the coronation ceremony of the emperor (“Hail, Caesar!”). Little did they know what sort of King they were dealing with.

This why Mark’s very first sentence was a challenge to the entire world, both Jew and Gentile alike. “In your face, Caesar!” is how one scholar describes it. To us, we who have heard the life of Christ so often that it almost seems routine, the first verse of Mark can seem trite. But when we read it through the eyes of a first-century subject of the Roman Empire, it is bracing.

This is why one of the most important persons mentioned in Mark’s gospel is the Roman Centurion who stood by the cross of the dying Jesus. After years of serving Caesar, he is moved by Christ’s death, and realizes, “Truly, this man is the Son of God” (Mark 15:39, emphasis mine). Jesus is the true divine Son of God, not Caesar. He is the true Universal Savior of Human Life. It is the day of his birth that is “the birthday of the God”. And it is he who deserves our allegiance, this Christmas and always. Merry Christmas, and may God bless you.

Postscript: The image selected for this post, Lorenzo Lotto’s Nativity, contains a crucifix in the background. Fitting, for the shadow of Calvary hung even over Bethlehem. The Nativity of Christ is the Christmas gift given. The Crucifixion is the gift torn open. The Eucharist is the gift received.