Archive for December 26, 2024

The Feast of Stephen and Two Reminders

Posted: December 26, 2024 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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Today is the Feast of St. Stephen the first Martyr of the Christian faith.

To some it might be an odd thing that the very first thing celebrated after the birth of Christ in the Christmas Season is the slaughter of one of his early followers and one of the first appointed deacons of his Church but it’s an important point in terms of both of why he is killed and how he dies.

When people find themselves unable to assail his arguments for Christ he is accused of blasphemy and when brought forth before the authorities he recounts the history of the Jewish race from God’s call of Abraham to Solomon before finally declaring:

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.”

And then the words that sent them over the edge

When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

They instantly take him out and stone him to death yet his final words are:

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”

Why because he didn’t tell them the truth to condemn them, he told them the truth in order for them to see themselves in the light of truth. To see things as they really are and act accordingly. That’s why even in death he asks for mercy for them and ironically one of those there Saul would soon become the messenger of the Lord who would spread the word of Christ far beyond the Jewish community.

Steven’s death reminds us that it is our duty to speak the truth but to never hate those who are trying to teach. He in his speech and death incorporates most of the Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy:

  • Instructing the Ignorant
  • Admonishing the Sinner
  • Forgiving injuries
  • Bearing wrongs patiently
  • Praying for the Living and the Dead

It’s an important reminder that the following of Christ is not without cost.

The 2nd reminder has little to do with St. Stephen but a lot to do with Christ.

We have an Islamic Iman in Florida claiming that Christians are pagans while at the same time supporters of the Palestinian Arabs are claiming that Jesus is a Palestinian and Christians in Bethlehem are trying to use their position to politicize the birth of Christ.

Meanwhile while at the same time we have writers denying the Palestinian attempt to re-write history and rightly claiming Christ as a Jew while at the same time denying his place in history by terming the numbering system of years as the “common era” rather than AD as if there is no special event that this system is about. Taking the Christ out of the entire Calendar.

Using Jesus as a political football has been a favorite sport of people for centuries but C. S. Lewis’ favorite Devil Screwtape gives a warning about this trend.

Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here.

Communists and Nazis also waged War on Christmas

Posted: December 26, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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For the past four decades the political left here in the United States has waged an all out war on Christmas.  About half the population has demanded that Merry Christmas be replaced with Happy Holidays; a sizable percentage of the remaining population complies out of fear.  Most towns no longer have Christmas Tree lightings, they have winter tree lightings.  Schools ban candy canes and Christmas colored wrapping paper.  The examples of the lefts war on Christmas in this country are too numerous to chronicle in any single article.

Leftists here in the United States are in rather notorious and infamous company when it comes to waging war on Christmas: How the Soviets Replaced Christmas with a Socialist Winter Holiday | Mises Institute

Initially, the Soviets tried to replace Christmas with a more appropriate komsomol (youth communist league) related holiday, but, shockingly, this did not take. And by 1928 they had banned Christmas entirely, and Dec. 25 was a normal working day.

Then, in 1935, Josef Stalin decided, between the great famine and the Great Terror, to return a celebratory tree to Soviet children. But Soviet leaders linked the tree not to religious Christmas celebrations, but to a secular new year, which, future-oriented as it was, matched up nicely with Soviet ideology.

Ded Moroz [a Santa Claus-like figure] was brought back. He found a snow maid from folktales to provide his lovely assistant, Snegurochka. The blue, seven-pointed star that sat atop the imperial trees was replaced with a red, five-pointed star, like the one on Soviet insignia. It became a civic, celebratory holiday, one that was ritually emphasized by the ticking of the clock, champagne, the hymn of the Soviet Union, the exchange of gifts, and big parties.

American leftists who have been waging war on Christmas are in even worse company: How the Third Reich Remade German Christmas in the Nazi Image | Mises Institute

German National Socialists—also known as the “Nazis”—tried a different tactic. Rather than abolish the observance of Christmas altogether, they attempted to redefine Christmas by making it into a day celebrating the German nation and National Socialist values. This was done by a variety of propaganda efforts designed to blur the line between Christianity and German nationalism while superimposing Nazi iconography on traditional Christmas symbols and images.

While it might appear that National Socialists were more tolerant of the Christian holiday than the French revolutionaries or the Soviets, all three regimes shared the same goal. All three sought to rein in or destroy Christmas because it endured as a reminder of a world view and a historical narrative that was in conflict with the regime’s preferred ideology and version of history. In other words, Christmas—and the international Christian religion it helped perpetuate—presented a competing world view that was outside the direct control of the state. This made Christianity a rival that no totalitarian was inclined to tolerate.