Gospel Mt 2:13-18
When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,
he became furious.
He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more.
Reflections:
Who but an evil soul dares to order the killing of innocent children. . . . That is exactly what Herod did in an attempt to eliminate Baby Jesus. He ordered the killing of children below two years of age when he realised that the Magi understood his evil intent of killing Baby Jesus and had already left Bethlehem by another route without informing him about the “new born King of the Jews”. We can only imagine the scene – the heartless soldiers mindlessly slaughtering innocent children to the unspeakable grief of their mothers and fathers and their loved ones, as we read in the gospel, “Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” Sadly, the slaughtering of the innocent is going on – in those being trafficked and abused; the civilians killed by extremists in Israel, Palestine, Ukraine and many other parts of the world; the terminally ill patients being euthanised in the clinics and homes, and the aborted babies, being murdered in their mothers’ wombs. We are invited today, to value life and to be like St Joseph, to protect and save innocent lives.
Activity:
Spend some time today to pray for the conversion of the Herods of today – the extremists, the men who promote, and women who seek abortions for selfish ends, and the medical practitioners who facilitate euthanasia and abortions.
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