Scripture Study for

Stephen was the first deacon chosen by the apostles, and we hear that he was “a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5).  We also hear that he was “filled with grace and power” and that he worked “great wonders and signs among the people” (6:8). This,  along with his preaching, earned him the distrust and ire of some powerful people, who incited others to accuse him of blasphemy  (6:9–15). His lengthy response to the charge ends with a reminder that his accusers’ ancestors had also persecuted the prophets (7:51– 53). He further infuriates the crowd with his claim to see “the glory of God” (that is, a visible sign of the presence of the unseen God)  with Jesus at his “right hand,” a position of power and authority.  This would seem to confirm the charge of blasphemy (which is why they cover their ears), the penalty for which was stoning (Leviticus  24:13–16). Stephen’s death conforms to that of Christ when he asks  Jesus to “receive my spirit” and he prays that Jesus will not “hold this sin against them” (see Luke 23:34, 46). 

The book of Revelation ends with the creation of “a new heaven and a new earth” and a new Jerusalem, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:1–2). This city represents the church of God,  formed around the “God and the Lamb,” from whose throne flows  “a river of life-giving water” that waters the tree of life, bringing the biblical story back to its beginning in the Garden of Eden (22:1–2; Genesis 2:9; 3:22–23). Now the human race, banished from the source of life ages ago, can return home. The book also ends with the reminder that this vision, while trustworthy, is only “near” and awaits fulfillment with the final coming of the Lord of history, the  Alpha and the Omega. Both the Spirit and the church pray for this coming, and the author exhorts his hearers to do the same. Christ himself, who gives the testimony of this final victory, affirms that he will certainly return, bringing with him the fulfillment of all of God’s plans and promises for all of creation.

In the Gospel reading, John’s characteristic intertwining and repetition of themes is on full display, a rhetorical device that mirrors the close connection among those themes, which are “abiding,” faith,  and witness. In the first place, Jesus prays that his followers “may all be one,” just as he and the Father are “one” because they are  “in” each other. In this Gospel that means not only an ontological identity (being of the very same nature) between Jesus and the Father  (1:1), but also a union of wills and a sharing of the bond of love  (15:9). Jesus thus prays that the church will “abide” in him and so also in the Father through the bond of love, manifested by, among other things, a visible unity. This unity is a sign of the divine origin of the church because it is a sign that Jesus was sent from the Father.  Christian unity thus has a crucial function for evangelization, giving plausibility to Christian claims about Christ. Division and lack of love among Christians makes it impossible to accept their testimony about Christ. Thus the mutually “abiding” in love of the Father, the Son, and the church is a witness to the truth, and so a firm foundation for belief and faith.