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.”
This year we received a crèche scene for Christmas and just like all our others we see Joseph and Mary and the baby and a few shepherd and, in a couple wise men, but no Herod. Out of all the crèche scenes I've ever had I've never seen Herod in the crèche.
But Herod was there. He was just a few miles away from there anyway -- his dark shadow cast from his palace in Jerusalem toward the little town of Bethlehem 15 miles away. And when word came to him that another king had been born the shadow lengthened and cast its dark pall over the city of David.
Aside from the Bible, no other historical source from the time remembers the slaughter of the innocents. That is understandable. Violence and war and the massacring of villages was the way the world was; it's the way the world still is in many places. It's easy to overlook the killing of a few dozen or hundred children in a small backwater. It's easy to forget. But the Bible remembers. In other words, God remembers.
What could possess a person to do such a heinous thing as slaughter innocent children? Today's lesson says Herod was enraged when he ordered the massacre. And surly he was. But there is something before and something deeper than the rage. And that something we are told was: Fear. Saint Matthew says when the Magi came and told him of another King being born Herod was afraid, "and all Jerusalem with him."
Fear can motivate one to do many cruel and barbaric things. And it can motivate others to go along with them. This is why fearful leaders who whip up the fears of others are so dangerous. We could see almost anything as reasonable action when we are afraid -- even barbarism.
Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It is a day to be mindful that while Christmas was a great day of joy, the shadow of death soon was to fall over Bethlehem. It is a day to remember the sacrifice and loss of those children's lives. We remember those children because God remembers them -- which means their lives were worth remembering.
But we remember something else also; we remember what fear can do to us and our humanity. And we remember then that we have a choice -- to choose to walk in the way of fear, or to walk in another way, the way of love, which "casts out all fear."
May the remembrance of the innocents teach us which path we should choose, and may we walk the path with deep wisdom and courageous faith.
#deepwisdom #courageousfaith
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