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Acts: 5: 27-33
When the court officers had brought the Apostles in
and made them stand before the Sanhedrin,
the high priest questioned them,
“We gave you strict orders did we not,
to stop teaching in that name.
Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching
and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,
“We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,
though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior
to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We are witnesses of these things,
as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”
When they heard this,
they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.
The Word of the Lord
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Roughly a thousand years ago, Poland became a Christian nation when the king converted to Catholicism. To this day, his conversion is sometimes referred to as, “the Baptism of Poland.”
However, a century later, the religious renaissance Poland was experiencing came to a crawl, as a violent and corrupt king – Bolesław II – took power.
Shortly thereafter, the local Archbishop, Saint Stanislaus, publicly rebuked and excommunicated the king for his immorality. Like the king, Stanislaus came from great wealth. But after his parents died, he gave his entire fortune to the poor and was ordained a Catholic priest.
Enraged by the public embarrassment, King Bolesław ordered his troops to put Saint Stanislaus to death, but they refused. So, the king decided to kill the saintly pastor himself while Stanislaus was celebrating Mass.
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Throughout the history of the Church, there are countless stories like this – stories of heroic courage which we first see unfolding in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
Much like Stanislaus, the Apostles believed in the truth of the resurrection – but they actually saw and touched the Risen Lord.
Convinced that Christ had conquered death, the Apostles preached throughout Jerusalem and beyond, knowing what their fate would be – death in this world, but eternal life in the next.
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How do we emulate such courage? Or what risks do we take to share our faith?
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On this feast of Saint Stanislaus, may he intercede for us that we, too, might offer ourselves entirely for Christ and his people.
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