Coffee With God

Reflection: Matthew 2:13-18

Today the Church commemorates the killing of the children of Bethlehem ordered by Herod, who wanted to get rid of the ‘new-born King’. Herod the king of Judea, was so insecure and scared of threat to his throne. A master politician and tyrant who cared the least for extreme brutality, he had been responsible for the murder of his own wife and sons as well as for the deaths of countless others. Killing a few more helpless infants did not mean to him anything! The Holy Innocents are few in comparison to the genocides of the history or the abortions of our day. In 2016, Pope Francis issued a letter to the bishops on the occasion of the Feast of the Holy Innocents. In the letter, the pope acknowledged the physical and sexual abuse of children by the clergy who destroyed their dignity and begged for forgiveness. He called on the bishops and the clergy to “find the courage needed to take all necessary measures and to protect in every way the lives of our children, so that such crimes may never be repeated.” In 2017 the pope challenged the world saying, “children of today’s world, who are not lying in a cot, caressed with the affection of a mother and father, but rather suffer the filthy “mangers that devour their dignity”, hiding underground to escape bombardment, on the pavements of large cities, or at the bottom of a boat overladen with immigrants.” We must be challenged by children “who are not allowed to be born, by those who cry because no one satiates their hunger, and by children who do have – not toys in their hands, but rather weapons,” said the Pope. Celebrating the feast of Holy Innocents is meaningless unless we identify the innocent victims of our own times. Pharaoh ordered the killing of the Hebrew children to secure his seat of power in the Old Testament. Herod ordered the killing of infants for the fear of threat to his power. Strange enough, the pattern continues to this day. Governments around the world are decided on the basis of the politician’s stand on abortion. Favouring abortion turns out to be a requirement to win elections in many parts of the world. Pope Francis reminds us: Christian joy is born from a call – the same call that Mary and Joseph received – to embrace and protect human life, especially that of the holy innocents of our own day. Christmas is a time that challenges us to protect life, to help it be born and grow.