We just celebrated the joyous birth of our redeemer. Nazareth is filled with joy over the baby whose birth had been foretold for generations. You would think that the church would want to hang onto these emotions for at least a few weeks. But instead, we get today’s readings which can bring to mind places like Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Darfur, Rwanda, Armenia. These places bring to mind images of horrible suffering and evil. Hundreds of thousands to millions die meaningless and nightmarish deaths at the hands of people with minimal respect for life.
In today’s Gospel from Matthew we read about another large scale loss of innocent life. The death of the Holy Innocents. Boys under the age of 2 years that are killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time in history. While the numbers involved here do not compare with the genocides listed above (some estimates are that there were 6 to 20 children murdered in Bethlehem that day), the degree of evil sparking these deaths is no less significant.
Herod the Great had been made King of Judea by the Roman Senate, and his friend Marc Antony, in the year 37 B.C. His rule was noted for the many building projects he oversaw in Palestine including the port of Cesaerea Phillpi and the Temple in Jerusalem. He was also noted for his willingness to go to great lengths to hold onto his power. While Herod was a practicing Jew, his roots are actually Arab. This background, along with his close association with the Romans, put him in conflict with the Pharisees in Judea.
This tenuous position in his rule helped to fuel Herod’s sense of being betrayed at every turn. His suspicions led to his murder of his wife, sons, brother in law and mother in law. So when he became aware of a future king being born in Bethlehem, he did all he could to discover his whereabouts. Discovering he had been lied to by the Magi, his rage took over and he ordered the killing of every boy under 2 years of age in an attempt to eliminate the potential competition for the throne. He was unaware at that time that the child had fled to Egypt with His parents.
So back to the original question. Why does the church insert these readings at the outset of the Christmas season? I think we need to look at the reading from the 1st Letter of St. John. John warns his community about turning away from the light. “God is light. In him there is no darkness”. We cannot have fellowship with God if we walk in darkness. Herod and Hitler did not start their lives out by murdering people. They compromised with the truth early on and never looked back. With each choice to choose evil, to deny God, they gradually extinguished the light and plunged further into darkness.
The Gospel shows us how the joy of Christmas can quickly become the sufferings of the innocents as a consequence of the evil, the darkness, in the world. But it doesn’t end there, does it? The very light that came into the world on that Christmas morning remains with us today. It is that light that allows us to ask him for forgiveness from the dark choices we make every day. Instead of allowing our sins, our bad decisions, to weigh us down and lead us continually down the path to total darkness, we can turn to Christ directly and in Reconciliation and ask Him to remove these burdens. To lighten our loads and return to the light. It doesn’t matter what sins we have committed, we just have to ask for forgiveness and we can return to the path that leads to glory.
Let us focus on the lyrics of the Dan Schutte song, City of God:
Let us build the city of God
May our tears be turned into dancing!
For the Lord, our light and our love
Has turned the night into day!
