Gospel: Matthew 2:13-18
After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon be looking for the child in order to kill him.”
Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. In this way, what the Lord had said through the prophet was fulfilled: I called my son out of Egypt.
When Herod found out that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old or under. This was done, according to what he had learned from the wise men about the time when the star appeared.
In this way, what the prophet Jeremiah had said was fulfilled: A cry is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation: Rachel weeps for her children. She refuses to be comforted, for they are no more.
Reflections
“Rachel weeps for her children.”
The Church always safe guards life, even of the unborn. Even in the early life of the Church, we have consistently protected life from “womb to tomb”. The letter to Diognetus, a non Christian, explained that Christians “do not kill babies”.
The martyrdom of the Holy Innocents reminds us of the sacredness of life, especially of the unborn. We recall today the infants who were killed at the order of Herod the Great, who was not so comfortable with the thought of a “messiah” or by and large, to his perceived competitor.
Indeed the first reading is right, “God is light and in his there is no darkness”. We cannot allow darkness to rule, injustice to ruin the truth and “Rachel weeping again for her children”.
The Christmas season brings us to a perspective of life. We are agents of light and life and not people of darkness and sin.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019
