The Catechism of Saint Stephen Protomartyr

Scripture tells us that when faced with trials, faithful Jews remembered their story and held on to their identity. Faithful Catholics know their story and retain their identity. Faithless Catholics forget their identity and attempt to manufacture limp narratives that differ little from absurd contemporary ideologies.

Saint Stephen held the feet of those judging him to the fire of history and truth. And for that, he was stoned to death.

Who is prepared to stand up to those who defy the law of God and accuse others of blasphemy for refusing to cooperate with deadly ideologies? In the first centuries, Romans targeted Christians who refused to burn as little as a single grain of incense to one of the pagan gods. Devotees of contemporary deities are no less determined than their ancient kin to persecute others who refuse to participate in today's dark rituals and sinister programs. In modern temples, policy is prayer, and procedure is ritual. Anyone who resists following inhumane policies and morally bankrupt procedures is quickly accused of all sorts of crimes. Is it not the accusers, however, who are the heirs to the bloodthirsty crowds that once roared in approval at the killing of Christians in the ancient arenas scattered across the Empire?

Revelation 12:10 | And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

In Chapter Seven of the Book of Acts, written by Saint Luke the physician, there’s a historical catechism that defines the identity of the true Israel. The earliest Christians, including the Church Fathers, believed the promises to Israel were fulfilled in Christ. St. Justin Martyr even described Christians as the “true Israelite race” (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 11). Augustine echoed this in City of God, teaching that Israel symbolized the Church rather than a lasting political nation.

Already in mystery and sign, the true Jerusalem “comes down out of heaven” (Rev 21:10). Only that which has become a “new creation” (Gal 6:15) can enter it [nothing unclean] because it has received the Spirit of faith in Christ by the “washing of water with the word” (Eph 5:26) in Baptism. The true Jerusalem & Zion is spiritual and heavenly. It transcends anything earthly: “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” (Gal 4:26); and so, through the liturgies which Christ established, Christians “have come to Mount Zion…the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb 12:22). catholic460

Christ, not politics, is the center of God’s plan. The universal mission of the Church is to all nations for the salvation of souls. The Kingdom of God is not man's oppressive inventions.

1. The Kingdom of God in Catholic teaching is a central concept that encompasses the reign of God in the hearts of believers and the establishment of His Kingdom on earth through the Church. It is not a geographical dominion but a person, Jesus Christ, who is God's presence among His people.
2. The Kingdom of God is a divine, everlasting, universal, and spiritual kingdom, which is established by and ruled by God. It is a heavenly kingdom that is more than an earthly one, and it is in essence a heavenly kingdom even though it is begun on earth. The Kingdom of God is a person, Jesus Christ, who is God's presence among His people, and it is a mixed reality that will be perfectly realized at the end of history. 
3. The Kingdom of God encompasses the reign of God in the hearts of believers, the establishment of His Kingdom on earth through the Church, and the ultimate realization of this Kingdom at the end of history. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states:

The Church is the new People of God… Those who believe in Christ… are reborn not from a perishable seed but from an imperishable one, through the living word of God (CCC 782).

St. Paul affirms this directly: If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:29). Likewise, he reminds the Romans that not all who are descended from Israel are Israel (Rom. 9:6).

The Book of Revelation describes the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) as a heavenly city embracing all nations.

We would do well to hear Stephen on the edge of his martyrdom and reflect on what it means to be a disciple of the living God.

Acts Chapter 7

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

And the high priest said, “Is this so?” And Stephen said:

“Brethren and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Depart from your land and from your kindred and go into the land which I will show you.’ Then he departed from the land of the Chaldeans, and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living; yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him in possession and to his posterity after him, though he had no child. And God spoke to this effect, that his posterity would be aliens in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and ill-treat them four hundred years. ‘But I will judge the nation which they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Joseph to Moses

“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him, and rescued him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and over all his household. Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the first time. And at the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and called to him Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five souls; and Jacob went down into Egypt. And he died, himself and our fathers, and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Moses to David

“But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till there arose over Egypt another king who had not known Joseph. He dealt craftily with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, that they might not be kept alive. At this time Moses was born, and was beautiful before God. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house; and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking the Egyptian. He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and would have reconciled them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled, and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it he wondered at the sight; and as he drew near to look, the voice of the Lord came, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. And the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the ill-treatment of my people that are in Egypt and heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

“This Moses whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ God sent as both ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up.’ This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their hands. But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

‘Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices, forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? And you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.’

David and Solomon to Jesus

“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says,

‘Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’

Stephen - witness to Jesus Christ

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

St Luke 10:16 | He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.