Daily Reflection Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

"Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him."

                                                                          ~Matthew 2:13

A headline in the on-line local 'newspaper' that we receive each day caught my interest earlier in December. "Missing Morristown Messiah Under Investigation," it read, chronicling the theft of the baby Jesus figure from the crèche displayed on the Green in city center. With my writer hat on, I admired the use of alliteration in all those "M" sounds; with my scripture-study background, I marveled at the use of "Messiah" with its spiritual implications perhaps unknown to the reporter; with my heart I lamented all the ways that the Prince of Peace would be missing this year, with no Christmas visitations in war-torn Bethlehem.

In a liturgical whiplash, our lectionary calls us today, only three days in but far from the Christmas card tableaux of the Peaceable Kingdom, to focus on the newborn Jesus, missing from the manger, and the missing two-year-old boys who were slain in his stead. Herod, a man of extreme brutality, driven by cruel tyranny and an unbridled thirst for power, has been thwarted by the slippery escape of the Wise Men who have returned home by another way. The massacre is pointless. Joseph, forewarned in a dream, has taken his family into exile in Egypt. The young boys of Bethlehem will die unwittingly in place of Christ, in the face of the hatred of Christ, as martyrs do. The liturgical color of the day is red, but the holy child lives.

Baby or man, the world will never know what to do with the 'God so loved the world' made manifest in Jesus the Christ. Evil will always start early, come too soon. It is horrifyingly easy to create our own litany of lament this Feast Day, our own voice heard in Ramah, sobbing and with loud lamentation. Children were among the slaughter of the innocents by Hamas on October 7. More than 7,500 children have now been killed in the siege of Gaza, and thousands more there are vulnerable refugees. Russia continues its mass kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian children. In our own country, millions of children have lost Medicaid health insurance coverage this year, and a gun has been wielded or fired on school property at least 344 times. Young teenage boys, undocumented, desperate to earn money for their families, are dying at dangerous construction sites or meat packing plants. The list is breathtakingly endless, limited only by our blinded or exhausted eyes to see.

What might we do? Hold a child in your life close today and, as spiritual guide Kate Bowler writes, see there the face of the Christ child in all his wonder, everyday majesty, and terrifying fragility. Or look through your email Trash folder and find a solicitation from an organization working to improve the safety and flourishing of children. Make a donation. Pray that, despite strife and hatred, political dissent and unspeakable acts of cruelty, the world could still be changed and saved through the love we have for our children. A little child shall lead them, might lead us. O Lord, hear our prayer.