NOTE: All reflections throughout the Advent and Christmas season will be available on our homepage and then archived on our Advent-Christmas 2023 webpage.
The reflection below is from Vickie Machado from the 2020 Advent reflection booklet, I Say to You: Watch! Reflections for Advent and Christmas 2020.
by Vickie Machado
1 John 1:5-2:2 | Matthew 2:13-18
When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of God 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.” (Matthew 2:13)
In pursuit of one child, Herod massacred all of the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity. Mothers and fathers lost their children. Sisters and brothers lost their siblings. Grandparents lost their grandchildren. All of this loss was due to unjust orders that targeted a particular demographic—the search for one baby boy.
Years later, we still live in a world that perpetuates unwarranted loss as families continue to lose children at the hands of injustice. It is important to recognize that every person killed at the hands of an unjust system has a network of loved ones to which they are bound. They have parents, siblings, partners, and people who care deeply for them. Immigrants facing treacherous crossings at the border and harsh detention centers, incarcerated people on death row, and young men and women of color who are shot by police all have mothers and fathers. Each and every one of these individuals belongs to someone, just as Jesus belonged to Joseph and Mary.
On this day as we recognize the Feast of the Holy Innocents, think about how many lives have been lost because a person ‘fit the bill’—because they looked a certain way. Remember that we are our brothers and sisters keepers and most importantly, remember that we are each a child of God. We belong to our Creator and it is not within anyone’s right to take that from us.
For reflection:
Continue to say the names of those whose lives are cut short at the hands of injustice. Recognize we are all someone’s child and think about what actions you can take to ensure that we stop the cycles of violence that continue to take lives and break apart families.
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A timely reflection, as a much more indiscriminate massacre is happening a stone’s throw from Bethlehem where an estimated 8,000, and counting, children have been slaughtered in Gaza with the excuse that Israel is aiming for members of Hamas, who they consider as much of a threat justifying that slaughter as Herod did while aiming for little Jesus.
If only we even knew their names to say them! What we can do is petition our government to stop arming Israel unless they at least adhere to international norms in war. As members of this democratic republic that allow this arming to continue, we are complicit in this slaughter.
May God forgive us.
The comment by Guy is spot on!
David-Ross Gerling, PhD
God help us
Mary undoer of Knots pray for us
VICKIE, GUY, JESSE, & DAVID Thanks for your reflection and replies. The Holy Spirit seems to be leading and guiding our percption of the gross insitutionalized injustices prevailing in and between many nations of our contemporary world. I pray that we can discern how to vote, preach and act in the context of such multi-dimensional situations.. racism, sexism, imperialism, claims of white superiority all divide our human community. Let us remember George Floyd, Eric Gardner, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor are just a few research the names and note that our contemporary history of unjust murders have a long history. Google, NPR, Wikipedia an other lists of ‘”unarmed African Amerucans killed by law enforcement officers in the United States” as well as all the innocent men, womem and children whose lives are taken in the unjust wars around our world (Russia-Ukraine; Israel-Hamas. Government forces in African and many other nations continue to engage in unjust killings of target groups within. God is love not hatred. Let us pray for the innoncent victims and the misguided police men and women and governments who use their power to destroy rather than protect human life!
Jesus is our only hope. How can we digest such barbarism? We can’t.
“Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
“For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
i found refuge in this passage on p.158 of “Practice of the Presence: A Revolutionary Translation” by Carmen Acevedo Butcher (2022), a description of the humility & trust Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection placed in God in the face of such horror:
“When we told him about some terrible injustice, rather than being shocked by it, he was instead surprised that there weren’t more injustices, given humans’ capacity for malice. He would immediately lift his awareness to God, knowing that God could remedy the situation, still allowing these for inscrutably divine reasons. Confident that Love is very just, and is still active in the world, after he prayed for those involved, he didn’t worry about it anymore, and remained in peace.”
As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) I resonate with this passage from our literature, “How heartily we AA’s can agree With him, for we know that the pains of drinking had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity.” (Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions, Step 10, pp. 93-94)
May we find rest for our struggling (& straggling) hope/world in the One who IS/Has all Power. 🙏🏼✝️💟
Cheryl S.
Thank you for expanding this Feast Day because the link to the children of Gaza and Ukraine should be implicit and inclusive.
In our very midst, mental and social illness silently slaughters teens by their own hands. Ms Machado brings out the fracturing and devastating effect the loss of a child has on family. This Feast of Holy Innocents now and always will no longer stay as an historic heartache for me because two years ago this month, our family lost a sweet and innocent sixteen year old. The continuing suffering of Aidan’s parents and siblings is a poignant awakening to the massive situation elsewhere. St. Aidan, pray for them.
Today the survivors of the 1982 Massacre at La Quesera in rural El Salvador gather on the hill where most of the 400 mostly women and children were massacred…to remember and so many years later, continue to grieve the lives that could no longer be lived.