Reflection for Tuesday on the Feast of the Holy Innocents 

By

 

Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Today's WORD of GOD 

Mt. 2: 16 -18 

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet *Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“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.” 


Today's Reflection 

A Tiny Child is Born, who is a Great King. Wise Men are Led to HIM from Afar. They Come to Adore One who Lies in a Manger & Yet Reigns in Heaven & on Earth. When They Tell of One who is Born a King, Herod is Disturbed. To Save His Kingdom He Resolves to Kill HIM, though if He would have Faith in the Child, He Himself would Reign in Peace in This Life  for Ever in the Life to Come.

Herod Your Throne is Threatened by the Source of Grace, so Small, yet so Great, who is Lying in the Manger. HE is Using U, all Unaware of It, to Work Out HIS Own Purposes Freeing Souls from Captivity to the Devil. HE has Taken Up the Sons of the Enemy into the Ranks of GOD'S Adopted Children.

The Children Die for CHRIST, though They Do Not Know It. The Parents Mourn for the Death of Martyrs. The Child Makes of Those as yet Unable to Speak Fit Witnesses to HIMSELF. See the Kind of Kingdom that is HIS, Coming as HE Did in order to be. 

This Kind of King. See how the Deliverer is Already Working Deliverance, the Saviour Already Working Salvation. But U, Herod, Do Not Know This & are Disturbed & Furious. While U Vent Your Fury Against the Child, U are already Paying HIM Homage, & Do Not Know It. How Great a Gift of Grace is Here! To what Merits of Their Own Do the Children Owe This Kind of Victory? 

Lacking in Moral Sense King Herod was Prepared to Murder Innocent Children to Quash even a Minimal Threat to His Power. This Style of Kingship, the Dictatorship of Herod, was the Polar Opposite of the Kingship that JESUS Came to Proclaim, the kind of Authority Suited to the Kingdom of GOD. This Finds Expression Not in Commanding but in the Humble Service of Others.

The Child who Escaped from Herod’s Tyranny Went on as an Adult to Say to HIS Disciples, “U Know that the Rulers of the Gentiles Lord It Over Them & Their Great Ones are Tyrants Over Them. 

It will Not be so Among U; but Whoever Wishes to Great Among U must be Your Servant.” 

None of Us will ever Act like Herod, but None of Us can Afford to be Complacent either; We can All Be Prone to Dominate in One Way or Another. 


The 1st Reading Today Declares, 

“If We Say We have No Sin in Us, We are Deceiving Ourselves & Refusing to Admit the Truth.” 

We have to be Alert to the Ways We can Fail to Take that Path of Humble, Self-Emptying, Service of Others which is the Way of JESUS, the Way of GOD.


Good Morning 

Happy Feast of Holy Innocents tl U All

GOD Bless Us All