According to Acts when Stephen the deacon was martyred, the protomartyr or first martyr of the Church, a “young man named Saul” was present and we are told “he consented to the execution.” We meet that same Saul a few chapters later when he encountered the Risen Jesus on the road to Damascus which led to his dramatic conversion into Paul, the Apostle. You have to ask, though, if the seed to that conversion was not planted by Stephen when he prayed at the moment of his death, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Young Saul must have wondered in the back of his mind what could motivate someone to forgive those who were harming him. Forgive and others will wonder about you.
