Reflection for December 28
I am not sure why The Spirit led me to choose this date, December 28, but I did so without knowledge of the gospel text for the day. Obviously, it is a difficult one!
In our gospel reading, the Magi have departed, and the Angel of the Lord appears to Saint Joseph in a dream. Specific instructions are given to Joseph, and he is even given a reason. Joseph does exactly as the Angel instructs, and thus the Infant Jesus is saved from certain death by the executioners of the tyrant, Herod.
I think it was Herod himself who interested me the most when considering this story. What would lead a person to murder innocent children, even babies? One cannot escape this question even in the twenty-first century as our recent school shootings have sadly taught us. Is it fear? Is it anger? Is it an unhealthy
sense of power and entitlement? Certainly, the powerful Herod was angry at the Magi for deceiving him and afraid that the Infant King was one who would overthrow his throne. Once an execution order is given and the heinous deeds carried out, there is no going back…no going back to innocence and safety… no going back to a world where these murders did not take place. (One could argue that abortion leads to the same ends.) So, in this sad story and our own twenty-first-century story, what can we learn?
Perhaps we are meant to understand that these feelings of fear, anger, and entitlement will all change and pass away peacefully if we humans learn how to name them and process them within our own minds and souls. Doing harm to others does not lessen these emotions. Destruction cannot lead to an equitable, peaceful end. Only extreme sorrow can result from the killing of innocent lives. Killing solves nothing. The problems within a mind still exist until they are processed successfully, and the soul matures.
God's ultimate plan (in our scripture reading) did not change…the Infant escaped and was raised to manhood by His earthly parents. He still fulfilled all prophecies, performed miracles, taught, suffered, died, and was resurrected. Herod's plan failed. Evil did not conquer Good. And we live today in hope that
we will create a more just earth, and at our deaths, see His Holy Face.
LoriAnn Ruiz, mother of three