These innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. Once again, Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, receives a message from God in a dream and moves his family to Egypt to avoid the coming slaughter. The scripture describes the horror of what occurred.
Matthew 2:12-18
And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their
own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel
of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “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.”
And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to
Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the
Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became
furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all
that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had
ascertained from the wise men.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping
for her children; she refused to be comforted because they are no more.”
We recognize that the Church has many martyrs, but no one
could have expected that the earliest martyrs were children! Among the carols of Christmas, the Coventry
Carol is a beautiful, but haunting carol of this tragic event. Listen to the carol here as you read the
words below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQOO9wCRXUo
Lully, lullay, thou
little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.
Thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.
O sisters too, how
may we do
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we sing,
“Bye bye, lully, lullay?”
Herod the king, in
his raging,
Chargèd he hath this day
His men of might in his own sight
All young children to slay.
That woe is me, poor
child, for thee
And ever mourn and may
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
“Bye bye, lully, lullay.”
Children are the most vulnerable of all humans and have
suffered even to the present time as our nation has allowed for abortion on
demand. Our nation’s history suggests
that we have always had to battle with those who believe some human beings are
unworthy of living.
On this day, we remember the first martyrs of the Church –
the Innocents of Bethlehem.
Peace
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