Monday, December 28, 2020            (today’s lectionary)
The Fourth Day of Christmas, Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs
A child’s life
God is light, and in here there is no darkness at all.
And in our own darkness what do we do with our inevitable sin, the sin we carry with us everywhere, even to our meals with the sinless Jesus? Well, one thing is for sure. His behavior is not going to change because of us, other than to become more welcoming and compassionate. I will be the one to see myself more clearly. As he loves me more dearly I can follow him more nearly, day by day.
If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. And if we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.
We sin and Jesus listens to our story, then forgives us. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It is easy to become discouraged. How old was John when he wrote this letter to his friends? How many times had he sinned and been forgiven? I want to learn from him, to be as patient with myself as Jesus is with me. I can learn to be firm but not rigid with myself, as Jesus is.
If we say, “I have not sinned,” we make him out a liar, and his word is not in us. But when we do sin we have an Advocate! Jesus Christ is the righteous one, he atones for our sins. And not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
Here is a daily prayer, easily repeatable, famous in the Catholic world, written by Sr. Maria Faustina in Poland about a hundred years ago … “For the sake of his sorrowful passion, eternal Father I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins, and those of the whole world.” It is called the Divine Chaplet. This prayer is worth its weight in gold to any of us who choose to learn it.
Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler’s snare. If the Lord had not been with us, we would have been swallowed alive, and the torrent would have raged and swept over us. But broken was the snare, and we were freed.
I try to imagine what Jesus felt some nights, carrying the sins of the whole world around on his shoulders. What he did as a matter of heaven on earth would kill me. I think of God’s compassion on Adam and Eve, closing the gates to Eden’s Tree of Life so that “they would not live forever.” Who could stand it? At least our bodies get to die. I can breathe in one last time and feel the bottomless depth of my selfishness, and then … let it go. But Jesus will never let it go. Jesus is God. Jesus carries my sin, carries and carries it, but for him in his freedom it holds no weight. Our souls have been rescued like a bird from the fowler’s snare.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Can I learn from the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph? Learn to listen day and night for the voice of the Lord? There is no corner of my life that escapes His notice, nothing that does not mean everything to Her. God is madly in love with me. God is madly in love with all of us.
The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream (again!) and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” So Joseph rose immediately and took the child and his mother through the night and traveled to Egypt.
And as they were rescued, so many children were killed. Herod’s fury at being deceived demanded the awful, heedless, vicious murders of every child in Bethlehem who might have been this mad king’s rival.
A voice was heard, with sobbing and loud lamentation Rachel was weeping for her children. And she could not be consoled since they were no more.
In the midst of the weeping, we hear and cringe inside their pain. “The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.” The Feast of the Holy Innocents, honoring these infant martyrs years before Stephen, seals their memory in our minds. We are all your children, Lord, we all die, and we are all given new life.
(1 John 1, Psalm 124, Matthew 2)
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