The Conversion of Saint Paul, And the Cost of Discipleship
. . . Saint Stephen, the first martyr in the Christian world, was stoned to death. Stephen was one of "The Seven" appointed to serve tables - the traditional role of a deacon - in the Church at Jerusalem. He was brought before the Sanhedrin to answer for placing final authority in Christ instead of in the high priest and Temple. The mob was stirred up against him by the Sanhedrin, and he was stoned. No one present at the stoning of Saint Stephen could have possibly predicted the transformation of Saul into the Apostle Paul. Consider this one passage and feel its chill: . . .
Simon of Cyrene, the Scandal of the Cross, and Some Life Sight News
. . . "The Passion of the Christ" depicted Simon of Cyrene just as I have always imagined him: resentful, even bitter at first, about the Cross he was compelled to bear. He was simply a man on his way to something else when fate, on that day, pulled him out of the crowd and into the Fifth Station of the Way of the Cross. In his inspired and inspiring new book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011), Pope Benedict XVI underscored the historical necessity of Simon of Cyrene's role: "The fact that Simon of Cyrene had to carry the cross-beam for Jesus, and that Jesus dies so quickly, may well be attributable to the torture of scourging, during which other criminals sometimes would already have died." (p.198). Critics of "The Passion of the Christ" deride it for its graphic and violent depiction of the scourging and crucifixion of Christ. It is an event of history, however, and it was not a gentle, civil affair. By the end of Simon's brief journey with Christ, he was changed. In the film, he was now compelled from within himself to remain there with Christ, to finish it. . . .