The Holy Innocents

 

Matthew 2: 13-18

The Escape to Egypt

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

Who can measure the grief that filled the streets of Bethlehem and its environs as a result of this brutal act of fear and megalomania? The first martyrs for sure, and an example of self-importance gone wild. And does this  continue today with children starving by the millions, bombs and drones destroying apartment houses in the Ukraine?  Not to mention the thousands killed by abortion. "Nothing new under the sun." but as well, the call to pray and work for the elimination of such atrocities. A huge task. Jesus "got the ball rolling" and it's up to us to continue its course.'

Bro. Rene 

Lord, we read today about the death of innocent children whom Herod killed in his rage. How many innocent children have been massacred over the ages by those who mock your rule of peace! Give us the courage and insight to do everything we can to bring about a world of peace where the innocent no longer are slaughtered. Amen.

  Rev. Thomas McNally, C.S.C.