12282022 – The Holy Innocents, Martyrs
There are always TOUGH CALLS. Tough DECISIONS to be made.
Someone HAS TO MAKE those TOUGH calls. Split-second decisions are sometimes called for…
Sometimes, decisions CANNOT WAIT.
Looking at all of his OPTIONS, and checking all of his various SOURCES, he made the BEST DECISION he could possibly make, given the information that he had at the time.
After weighing all of the FACTORS, Herod decides that the Christ-Child MUST BE DESTROYED. He must be WIPED OUT. He must NOT be allowed or permitted to SURVIVE.
It is nothing PERSONAL. It is BUSINESS.
Not all decisions are POPULAR decisions.
But then, they DO NOT NEED to be “popular.”
They just need to be CARRIED OUT.
There is NO OTHER OPTION.
Even if innocent blood must be spent, this “Messiah of the STARS,” this “Messiah of the HEAVENS,” cannot be permitted to live.
Action IS required. IMMEDIATE action. There can be no dilly-dallying.
SHOULD the child be allowed to live, the kingdom WILL BE threatened from within.
And not only HIS POWER and HIS POSITION but the power and the position of “OTHERS” – must also be taken into consideration.
RIVALS simply are never permitted.
Should the young child be allowed to survive and exist, will REASON be replaced by REVELATION?
Should this so-called “holy child” be allowed to live, will JUSTICE be replaced by PITY, as being some kind of cardinal virtue?
What will be next?
Identifying rivals and potential rivalries is not always easy, these three visitors from afar, have just made things so much easier! It will be clean. It will be swift. It will be an immediate RESPONSE.
Under possible “new leadership” would there come a “new direction,” will the fear of RETRIBUTION vanish?
If WISE and HOLY men are already seeking him out, what will the future hold?
Perhaps the “new aristocracy” will consist exclusively of HERMITS, BUMS, MISFITS, and permanent INVALIDS.
Who knows what directions things may take?
Will the diamond in the rough, the whore, and the bandit, who is good to his mother, and the epileptic girl who has a way with animals…will they become the HEROES and the HEROINES in the age that is to come?
And “what of” the GENERAL, the SOLDIER, the PHILOSOPHER, and the STATESMAN, what will become of them?
Will they merely become the butt of every FARCE and every SATIRE? Will they be the joke that flows easily from the lips of the “common man – the farmer and the planter of seeds?”
No, the child cannot live. He must die the death of all those who threaten the “common good.”
COMPETITION is neither amusing nor is it acceptable. It MUST BE ERADICATED.
Violence is the ONLY RESPONSE POSSIBLE! Immediate! Swift! Merciless! Regardless of any and all losses.
I will see to it at once. I will sign the necessary orders. I shall call for the Captain of the Guard.
Gruesome things happen. The unheard of — happens. Victims are real in all ages and in all times…
Not only do mothers weep. But so do fathers. Friends, family members, and neighbors, all join in the mourning.
Sometimes full communities weep! With weeping and loud cries, their voices can be heard. They cannot be silenced. They refuse to be silenced.
And so Herod had his troops sent to Bethlehem…seeking out all male children under the age of two.
IF it is difficult to tell the differences between two-year-olds and three-year-olds…then, just kill them all if there is any question.
No rivalries will be permitted. Not now, not ever.
There is a myth that developed centuries after that time.
It speaks of one of the midwives who was present for the birth of the baby Jesus.
When she saw the soldiers coming, their swords already being drawn, she quickly put a wreath on her head and began to dance to the pleasure of the arriving soldiers.
She danced in their midst. She danced and danced, until she could no more.
Thus giving the holy family time to slip away into the darkness and head toward land of Egypt.
Another ancient myth speaks of Mary, Joseph, and the child holding up in a cave having sought refuge there.
A company of soldiers was still in hot pursuit.
Amazingly spiders at the entrance of the cave began furiously making their webs.
By the time the soldiers arrived, the cave was sealed with the webbing the spiders had made.
On a quick assessment, the soldiers did not check the cave further because of the webbing covering its entranceway.
Again, the holy family was saved.
So it is tonight that we remember despots around the world who still make snap decisions and are concerned only about their own power and their own positions.
Children still die.
Two thousand years later and martyrdom still happens.
Our world is still not a safe place.
Nor has it ever been, if you are among the most vulnerable.
Is there anything more vulnerable than that of a small child?
Amen.