Holy innocents

Christmas I (Holy Innocents) Matthew 2:13-18

“Out of Egypt have I called my Son.”

Jesus never authorizes any one to kill for him. On occasion, Jesus does ask us to be prepared to die for him.

The Holy Innocents are among those who died for Jesus. They witness to the power of sin at work in the human soul. And, the witness to the human tendency to reject our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ,

Joseph Stalin once commented that you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs, It was his response to those who criticized him for killing some 30 million of his own people in order to build the perfect society on earth.

King Herod had no interest in building a socialist paradise on earth. He did understand that his power was based in pride and conflict. Through fear of losing his power and anger that the Magi had not reported back to him the identity of the Christ Child, King Herod lashed out in fury and spite.

King Herod’s solution was the final solution: Kill them all. He wasn’t the first to adopt this strategy. He wasn’t the last.

He could have made a different choice. He could have worshipped the Christ Child as the Magi did. He could have rejoiced with the shepherds and sung the glory of God with the angels.

He didn’t. He could only have done those things if he heeded the prophetic call to repent and to prepare. He was not willing to repent. He was not willing to prepare. He had sealed his soul in the way of pride, self-will and fear. He used his authority as king to order the military to commit a terrible atrocity in the name of maintaining order and security.

If King Herod were a modern politician he might have called the Holy Innocents “collateral damage”. He might have called a press conference and announced: the operation to maintain homeland security was successful. We don’t target civilians. We don’t target infants. But, sadly, sometimes these things just happen. Sometimes the innocent die with the guilty.

People some times ask: why does God allow these terrible atrocities. It is a good question. A better question might be: why do people perpetuate and justify these atrocities? Why do so many people in the world accept the concept of ‘collateral damage”? The best question is: what is God doing about this problem?

The Holy Innocents bear witness to the problem of original sin. People are lost in separation from God. The lost don’t want to be found. The lost don’t want to repent and prepare for our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ. The lost form their minds, and hearts and wills in categories of rigid, inflexible and uncompromising belief. In those beliefs the lost experience fear and bring forth conflict.

The lost can always justify atrocities in the name of belief, for the purpose of security.

The Holy Innocents also witness that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the original pattern of humanity. Jesus offers us reunification with the One God in the community of the Three Persons of universal unconditional love. Jesus offers us a new life in him. Jesus offers us a new way of living by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

The way of Jesus is the way of faith. It is the new life of grace. It is the transforming power of divine love.

God sent the holy family to Egypt for safety. Egypt also held a cosmopolitan Jewish community conversant in Scripture, Tradition and Reason. It was an ideal place for the child Jesus to learn some valuable lessons. It was the prophesied place from which the Father called His son to return to Israel.

God also calls us out of the place we find ourselves. He calls us out of separation to be found in Jesus. He calls us out of rigid, inflexible uncompromising belief into a living and transforming faith. He calls us out of fear and conflict into a new life of courageous peace.

The prophet proclaims the word of God the Father: out of Egypt have I called my Son. Jesus finds us where we are and then calls us to journey with the Holy Spirit to a new place of grace, through faith, by universal unconditional love.