Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs
Throughout human history, there is a struggle between life and death, between forgiveness and hatred, between love and selfishness. Many people gain power, even legally, not to serve, but to dominate, to exalt themselves. Such a ruler was Herod, who, feeling threatened by Jesus, the newborn King of the Jews, decided to kill Him. Saint Joseph, warned in a dream by an Angel, fled with Mary and the Child to Egypt.
It is unbelievable that some people can fear God, who loves, as their enemy. This is what happened to Herod. All the darkness that can engulf us humans is concentrated in the person of Herod. It turns out that we can even kill children if we consider them an obstacle to our own life plans. Let us see the two degrees of human sinfulness. Ordinary sinners fleeing from God, would like to create a world as if God did not exist. Instinctively, they feel that their sins are being revealed to God, and that they have gotten used to their sins and do not see its great evil.
Human sinfulness - as in Herod's case - can reach such a level that it directs their aggression against God. Such sinners no longer flee from God, they only persecute God. What prevents them is that God comes to people and becomes the light of their lives. Such haters of God can destroy a lot of people who are still spiritually untrained.
Today, the witnesses of the Truth are marginalized in the societies and nations which, guided by the logic of death and violence, inevitably aim to catastrophe and annihilation. These has already happened in the totalitarian systems built by Stalin and Hitler in the last century.
Dominance of the stronger over the weak decisively opposed Jesus Christ. He reminds us about the dignity of every human being, regardless of the political system, cultural, religious or party affiliation. That is why His teaching preached by the Church for many rulers, tyrants and some political leaders has been inconvenient and is opposed. Today, powerful media companies are imposing and promoting a "culture of death" that violently anopposes life. The Western world and some of its blind leaders are allowing their peoples to build new abortion clinics and to take the lives of old people.
Contemporary Herods do not respect life, therefore the countries that they rule have no future. "A nation that kills its own children is a nation with no future", prophetically warned Saint John Paul II. They also destroy the family, uncritically approve of divorce and pass very liberal laws, such as in Spain, where you can get a divorce within 4 hours. Let us pray to God that the sacrifice of the children of Bethlehem will not be in vain. May God have mercy on us, forgive our sins against the life of our generation and help us all to build the "civilization of love". Only a culture based on Christian love and dedicated service can survive and overcome the enemies of life, the enemies of God.
One more time let us go to today’s gospel which refers to the Holy Innocents, recognizesthem as martyrs, although they did not have the opportunity to meet Jesus. They gave their lives for him, although they never met him because Jesus was their peer. As tradition teaches - they received the "Baptism of Blood".
Jealousy and fear of losing power, arose in King Herod. Today also, many people experience such fear: it does not necessarily have to be about power in the political sense. It is all about controlling something, controlling life. It is all about generally understood freedom and generally understood control ofpower. Controlling over a certain section of reality in which a given person lives. When a baby is born everything changes. Man is simply not as "free" as he used to be. There are "limitations"...
Therefore, for some people having children is a "problem”. And families with many children are still considered a "pathology" in society. The 2 + 1 trend dominates (where more and more often "1" means a dog or a kitten) And one more serious problem of modern times that is associated with today's Gospel ...Abortion.
A euphemism that has been functioning in our language for years. Because it is so difficult in the times of "political correctness" to say - "murder of the unborn". Planned Parenthood organizations fight for the right of women to dispose of their own belly. And a human beingin the prenatal phase is called a "cluster of cells”. All this to silence the conscience. Posters displayed in public places by Pro-Life organizations arouse incredible indignation.For different kinds of "aesthetes" it is dazzling with violence. They say: such pictures will distort the psyche of small children. No comments ...
In this Gospel passage, the blood of innocent children is shed. Likewise, in each of these so called "treatments" the blood of innocent children is spilled. There really is no explanation for killing defenseless beings. Just because they are sick. The case of rape is no justification either. Because why should the child be to blame. He/She is not a perpetrator of a crime, he/she did not ask to come into the world.
And the case of the mother's life in danger? Practice shows that many women decide to give birth to a child. They are hailed as heroines, one of them was raised to the altars. Mother's love should be stronger than the logic of doctors, stronger than the logic of politicians, stronger than the logic of feminists. There is a piece of God's love in mother's love; finally, we read in one of the Old Testament prophecies: " Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? (cf. Is 49:15)
There are still many Herods in the world for whom the government of souls is more important than the lives of the innocent, defenseless creatures that are born all over the world every day.
Let us think again about these realities. The Christmas season is conducive to such reflections.
And ... Let us Defend Life.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george