Thought for the Day: In our celebration of Christmas, we wish and speak of joy and peace on earth and hope and wish for a better place and more hospitable world; yet, we still see a dreadful world without Christ. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “And, in despair I bow’d my head. “There is no peace on earth, “I said. “For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.” Within the making of peace, there is the sadness of a broken and cruel world that cause our Lord to have to leave the portals of heaven and venture here in order to provide healing of the world that we have broken. There was the promise of sword that would pierce the heart of the mother of our Lord. There were other swords for the mothers of other infants that were born near the same time as our Lord Jesus. Their innocent lives would be snuffed out by evil powers even before they had an opportunity to live and flourish. Today on this Feast of the Innocents, we remember the sacrifice whereby babies and toddlers gave their lives as Herod hunted down the Holy Child, Jesus. These unwilling martyrs were called by Augustine buds, killed by the frost of persecution the moment they showed themselves. And, what about those babies today who are slaughtered on the altar of convenience, the altar of “choice”? They too are an indictment upon our own government and society even as the slaughter of innocents was an indictment upon Herod and the culture of the day. Let us not regard the infants and children as collateral damage; neither let us consider the unborn to be inconvenient body tissue. Let us take a stand for God, for that which is right, and for the unborn, infants and children and others who are the most vulnerable among us. And so, we will hope like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that God will prevail and evil will be conquered as he followed the previous verse with, “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.” Scripture for the Day: Matthew 2:16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Let Us Pray: Lord God, forgive us for how we have treated the little ones among us. We pray for them and for a renewed opportunity for them to see the light of day. Amen
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:45:43 +0000
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