Notes for the Week First Sunday after Christmas December 29th 2019

Dear friends.

Christmas is a time for rejoicing and celebration for the birth of Our Lord, but it is not without profundity.  It was only four days after the birth of Christ that, King Herod, insane and insanely jealous of any other who might be proclaimed king, ordered all boys in Bethlehem who were two years old and under to be executed.  In his warped mind, he considered that by killing all the baby boys, Jesus would be executed as well.  No-one can actually prove this happened and the reliable historian at the time, Josephus, who recorded all that was going during that period, left no record of this awful event. However, since Herod was known to be impetuous, power-hungry, cruel and very capable of such an order, there is a great deal of likelihood that something like this occurred.    Mary and Joseph were warned to leave Bethlehem due to this horrific massacre. They did so, however, there were many innocent young boys who lost their lives because of King Herod’s greed.   Jesus was saved for the moment, but he, too, was executed as a young man, for the sake of truth in the face of political gain. Thus, on the 28th of December, the Day of the Holy Innocents is celebrated in churches around the world. 

Here is a very fine piece published this morning in the New York Times.  You may enjoy reading it.  The Bloody Fourth Day of Christmas https://nyti.ms/3629C4c

Please pray for all those innocents around the world 

who fear for their lives because of their faith 

or because they are victim to violence and  oppression.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”- Matthew 2:18