Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents 2015 (Matthew 2:13-18)

“Flee to Egypt…”

God loves the world; but the world does not love God.

The world is the culture of self-will and pride that our species has created. It is a world of fear that has no room for the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. Fear casts out love.

So it was that the political power of the age reacted to the fulfillment of prophecy with fear. King Herod ruled by power and might. He could only conceive of God’s Messiah in the same way. He used fear to terrorize and to rule. He also lived by fear- the fear that someone like him but more ruthless and more intelligent might come and destroy him.

Fear kills the soul. It darkens the mind with paranoid suspicions. It so corrupts the heart that it subverts the natural expression of affection and compassion. It both paralyzes action in the ability to change and it impels reaction to a host of imagined threats.

On that night, the angel warned Joseph to flee Israel and to seek refuge in a foreign country- in Egypt.   Even as the holy family fled certain death in Israel King Herod lashed out in a furious rage. He committed a crime so heinous that it is not even recorded in any known account of the history of the time. Only the Biblical writers dared to remember and remind future generations.

Fear kills. First, it kills our own souls. Then it corrupts our mind, heart and will. Finally, it so distorts the image and likeness of God in our own souls that we are capable of justifying crimes of omission and commission in the name of self- defense.

The Holy Spirit made sure this crime was recorded. He also made sure the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church would hold the memory and honor the victims. He asks us today to consider how fear affects us who are of the household of the faith.

Do we follow secular political leaders who use fear to assert their will to power? Do we follow the lost into patterns of reaction and separation?

Or, do we hear the word of God, believe the word of God and ask our Heavenly Father to empower us to follow the Way of Jesus Christ? That way is the way of kindness and compassion, It is a way we can only follow in union with the co-eternal Beloved by the indwelling of the co-eternal Spirit of Holiness.

King Herod exalted religion but rejected holiness. He distorted love through power. He made a choice from the place of fear. The Holy Innocents pray for us in this present time of challenge, in this time of fear, to learn from Herod’s crime so we can make a different choice.

Fear kills. Those who live from the place of fear have no room for the Beloved. They will not welcome him. They will cast him out. They will follow a false messiah who offers a false plan of security grounded in deceit that brings death.

Only Jesus shows us the way. Only Jesus strengthens our will to choose the way. Only Jesus transforms a heart of stone into a heart of courageous compassion. Only Jesus, the co-eternal Beloved of the eternal Father empowers us with the Holy Spirit to make the difficult choice to follow the way of kindness and compassion. Only Jesus is the Way through fear to faith in our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation for all people everywhere.