Vigils Reading – St Stephen

A Reading from the Third Sermon

of St Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe1

Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal king; today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of a soldier. For yesterday our king, nobly arrayed in flesh, proceeding from the chaste womb of the Virgin Mary, deigned to visit this world; today a soldier, leaving the confines of the body, made his way in triumph to heaven.

Our king, though he is the Most High, for our sake came in humility; yet he could not come empty-handed. It was indeed a generous gift that he brought for us, one by which he not only abundantly enriched us but gave us the strength to do battle and never be vanquished. What he brought was the gift of love, which was to lead us to become sharers in the godhead. He brought it only to expend it, without in any way diminishing his own store; while turning the poverty of his followers into riches he remained himself, as by a miracle, fully possessed of his own inexhaustible treasury.

Love then, the same love that brought Christ down from heaven to earth, raised Stephen from earth to heaven; the same love shown first in the king was reproduced in its splendor in the warrior.

And so Stephen, in order to earn his right to the crown his name signifies, armed himself with love, and by that same love won every battle. It was love of God that made him yield not an inch, love of his neighbor that led him to intercede for those who stoned him. It was through love that he was able to expose those in error so that they might change their ways; through love that he prayed for those who

stoned him so that they should not be punished. Trusting only in love, he overcame Saul’s cruel rage, and the very man who had been his persecutor on earth he won as his companion in heaven. That same holy and untiring love longed to win over by prayer those whom it could not convert by persuasion…

Love is therefore the source and origin of every good, an unrivalled protection, the road that leads to heaven. Those who walk in love can be neither lost nor afraid; love is the guide and protector, and brings them to the end of their journey. For this reason, beloved, since Christ has set up a stairway of love by which every Christian can mount up to heaven, keep a firm hold on love alone; love one another, and by growing in love climb together up to heaven