Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs | USCCB
Today we commemorate the Feast of Holy Innocents, those innocent children who were killed because of the insecurity and jealously of King Herod. Herrod hears about the newborn King of the Jews and feels threatened.
We can only imagine the fear and grief of the parents of these innocent children as they watched helplessly as their children were slaughtered. On one hand, it’s shocking to know that God permitted this. On the other hand, on a level of deep faith, we must strive to understand the witness that these innocent children gave.
In effect, Herod was the first person to reject Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Herod felt threatened by someone who, because He's God, could have brought him peace and happiness. Instead, Herod lashes out and goes on to try to eliminate what he considers a threat to him being King. Herod responds with violence!!
As we reflect on King Herod's reaction to Jesus being born, let us remember that we too are called to embrace and accept Jesus as our Newborn King. Jesus is Lord and Savior. Jesus came into the world to bring us salvation and forgiveness of our sins. We should not fear Jesus coming into our lives but rather invite Him into our hearts and lives to lead us towards heaven.
Let us also pray for those children who die as a result of abortion or suffer as a result of child abuse. These are the Holy Innocents of today. We need to pray for those most innocent and vulnerable of people in our society: the unborn and those children suffering at the hands of abusive adults. We need to be proactive in finding ways of protecting these Holy Innocents.
Let us this day pray the following prayer: "Lord, I surrender all hurt, pain and confusion to You. I unite myself, this day, with the sorrow of those who lost these little children and I trust that their lives, as they reign now in Heaven with You, are a sign for me of things to come. Your birth into our world was the greatest sign that You are our Savior and that You can turn all things into good. Jesus, I entrust my life to You and know that You will right every wrong. Jesus, I trust in You."
From Arlene B. Muller
ReplyDeleteYES, GOD'S ways are mysterious & in situations like this, unfathomable. As written in 55th chapter in the book of the prophet Isaiah, GOD'S ways are above our ways & His thoughts above our thoughts, as high as the heavens are above the earth. I know that like St. Peter, when he responded with something like "GOD forbid that this should ever happen to You" when Our LORD JESUS, Whom he had declared to be "the CHRIST, the Son of the Living GOD", announced that he would be handed over to be crucified & suffer excruciatingly, die, & then rise from the dead (the last part he seemed to have missed hearing after the overwhelming shock of the words that came before), Our LORD JESUS would say "Get behind Me, Satan, you are thinking as human beings think & not as GOD" if I presented to Him my scenario of the way I would have preferred, to save the babies & accomplish our salvation, & defeat both Our LORD'S spiritual & human enemies (sin, satan, death, & all who perpetrated his trial , suffering & execution)
As a human being who desires to accomplish the greatest good with the least amount of suffering & a way that would be the least painful & that in my human nature I would consider the most efficient & who has had some exposure to children's stories of superheroes I would have suggested this alternative scenario to both save the lives of the innocent babies & children & accomplish our salvation: Herod's soldiers would kill the Child JESUS. JESUS, having died, would rise from the dead, there would be no killing of innocent babies and/or toddlers, JESUS would grow up & do His public ministry of teaching, preaching, healing & miracles. Then as they attempted to scourge, crucify & kill Our LORD, He would already have been living 33 years in a glorified Body that would prove to be invincible & impenetrable so that He would not suffer any of their attacks & all their attempts to harm Him would BOOMERANG back at themselves & all His attackers would suffer and die themselves as a result of their own actions & everyone would bow down to JESUS & acclaim Him LORD & know that He is GOD. WOW!
It's hard to understand why GOD, Who can do anything & Who can order events any way He wants would choose the path of excruciating suffering to something a lot easier & less painful for all concerned.
But for His own mysterious reasons, in the mind of GOD every aspect of Our LORD'S Passion, suffering, crucifixion, death & Resurrection were necessary to accomplish our salvation, fulfill the purposes of GOD, & fulfill the many prophecies in the Old Testament. The Holy Innocents would die to protect the CHILD JESUS so that He could fulfill His mission through His Cross & Resurrection and the Holy Innocents serve in our day to represent the millions of innocent unborn babies being slaughtered by abortion & encourage us to stand up for the sanctity of human life from conception.