The Day of Holy Innocents – Yesterday

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. Matthew 2:16-18

That day Evil tried to keep salvation from mankind, to keep all men bound, gagged and in misery.    But Evil failed. 

And ever since the Messiah, Christ Jesus, died and rose again for the reconciliation of all things to God, Evil has wagged a war of destruction of individual souls.  At times in gross sweeping manners as in this account of history where humanity stands horrified at the evil and destruction. 

Then there is the more oft times when evil looks so delightful and right that humanity has curled up in its lap and slung an arm about its neck for assurance.  We lean upon our understanding, our man-made wisdom, choose what we deem best, encouraged by the whispering in our ears of independence, success, pride and pleasure.  Clucking our tongues at some of the eventual obvious fall-out as we remain oblivious to the true beginning of the horror.

I’ve heard of late like I’ve often heard, a cry for access to education for those in this world whom we deem by our standards to be oppressed.  My grandfather’s lack of education was not what caused his neighbor to disdain him.  It is not a lack of education that causes a woman to be taken advantage of and not cared for.  It is not a lack of education that causes mayhem and serial killing.  Ted Bundy was well educated, many a call girl have splendid degrees.

If we school the children of the world so that they too roll their eyes at their parents, we’ve done a great thing right?  Because after all when God said, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” He really meant to add, ” but only if you’re under the age of ten, and your parents pass a well-deserving of honor parent test given by the local school and church authorities.  Otherwise it is far better to shun your parents, consider them stupid and embrace the schools and society as the fountain of your authority”  Disney made sure that we have heard what God really meant.  Down in Hollywood they know that a ten year old and the family dog are far smarter than any silly ol’ parent, especially if that parent happens to work for a living.

I’m just sure that is what God meant to say, well at least if I am to judge what is said daily by the supposed do-gooders out there who would rather see (have seen) my daughters out and about in mini-skirts slutting it up at the local school than at home with me learning to work hard.  Oh they don’t say it out loud about my children actually, they just say it about the backward children and parents in other lands or other cultures.  Blanket statements.  Overreaching generalizations based on an incident that they most likely don’t have the whole story on.  And certainly they wouldn’t send them off to school for the purpose of losing their purity and honesty, that would just be an unfortunate side effect of gaining the riches from the gods called intellectualism, independence and experience.

Day of Holy Innocence is commemorated in particular ways in this country by the few that are aware of the feast day.  And while I certainly would never ask them to stop in their cause, I would also ask that we, as a horrified-at-modern-day-evils church culture, look honestly at some of the back story to the horror and attend to what parts of it God supplies us with the wherewithall to combat evil at those points.  And to understand that not everyone fights evil from the same vantage point.

This is what we have heard from Jesus Christ,
and the message that we are announcing to you:
God is light; there is no darkness in him at all.
If we say that we are in union with God
while we are living in darkness,
we are lying because we are not living the truth.
But if we live our lives in the light,
as he is in the light,
we are in union with one another,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:5-2:2