Reflection for December 28
Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs
Wow! Comparing this gospel to the real-world brutality and suffering and to the feast day of the Holy Innocents seems so ironic. Here we have the story of Joseph, the protector, faith-filled and listener to Word of God, taking his family and fleeing to Egypt. The dream of direction and becoming a refugee allowed the Holy Family to escape the wrath that Herod would bring down on the youngest of us. Why, we ask, why do some escape and others are left to be put to death? Where is God? If He loves us, why does He not protect us…all of us?
We know that evil exists in the world. We know also that Jesus is good and wants goodness to surround us. Our Jesus is not a superhero who intervenes at the sign of every strife but was born in the midst of Herod’s brutality. He knows when we are hurting; comes to those who are scared, sick or hungry; feeds, heals, and teaches the presence of God’s power wherever there is sadness and tears. It is the mystery of life that there was wailing, suffering, and lamenting in Jesus’s day and in ours today. Only love and peace can overcome the atrocities of the present day. We cannot control or change the world but we can try, in our own little corner of the world, to bring love and peace to those we know and to those we don’t. Who knows? If all of us spread love and peace, maybe, just maybe, we can change the world.
Beth Malley