If we want to live God’s forgiveness, let us ask the gift of forgiveness

“ Stiff necked Men, insensitive and uncircumcised in heart and ears! Your ancestors always refused to listen the Holy Spirit  so do you! “ (cf: At 7, 51).

We are tracking the last moments of the Earthly life of St. Stephen. He is for us a model, man of faith, and filled with the Holy Spirit. He attracted all at his side in submission to the will of God, by the preaching of the word and submission to the Holy Spirit.

For this reason, Stephen was persecuted, driven to death and, right in front of his captors, his evangelical audacity did not stop nor prevent him from announcing the Gospel to those men, so he opened to the truth of the Gospel,but they were with closed heart, ears covered so as not to hear the word of the Lord.

You know, the insensitivity of heart and toughness of head closes us to know the truth. Often, we let our ears stay covered. But what does it means to have your ears covered? It’s not the inability to not listen, because you listen to the sounds, words, but they do not enter your heart. These words have to fall on your heart, so as to cause a reflection, a meditation: “is this word is not for me? Does it not want to say something to my heart? “.

We must always ask God to give us grace of sensitivity to his Word, to what he wants to tell us, because we’re always concerned about what he wants to say to each other or to what we need to talk to others, but we close ourselves to what he wants to say to us and we became numb to his word.

The death of Stephen tries to sensitize those hearts that in no way wanted to be open to hear the word.

Another thing we learned from the death of Stephen is that he died as he lived, meaning he spent his life indulging in God and, at his death, also surrendered completely to the Lord. He did not experience the agony of death, but the joy and gift of delivery to God.

When you spend your life giving yourself to God, don’t stop on the hardness, the difficulties, perceptions that you have received along the way, because who gives himself to the Lord, turns himself over to Him for real! And in a life delivered to the Lord one does not stop due to the hardness of the path.

Stephen died forgiving, he  lived life without stopping in resentment, bitterness and against pursuers. He’s saying: “Father, don’t take into account the sins that these men are making against me”. Jesus died on the cross forgiving his executioners, because he lived a whole life surrounded by forgiveness.

If we want to live God’s forgiveness, let us ask the gift to forgive those who persecute us, whomever does not love us nor wants good for us, but only bad.

We will live and die in peace if we forgive which is the great gift of our life!

God bless you!