Sermon for the Feast of St. Stephen

The problem when we read a great martyrdom account like that of St. Stephen, is that we think we cannot relate, as we have never been persecuted for our faith. Our lives can seem petty and insignificant in comparison. This not true, persecution is not just the glorious death by stoning of St. Stephen or a Bible smuggler imprisoned by communists. Persecution is a spectrum, it is a wide array of attacks by the world which tempt us to abandon or compromise our faith.