When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,
he became furious.
He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more. (Matthew 2, 13-18)

Matthew’s gospel alone describes the massacre of the Innocents and the flight into Egypt.. An angel tells Joseph in a dream to take the Child and his mother into the safety of Egypt to stay till the death of Herod.

Other children born in Bethlehem will not escape the ruler’s cruelty, who orders a massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem two years old and under.

What do we make of this story?. No historical source from the time mentions it, but the massacre isn’t inconceivable. Herod was a powerful ruler, notoriously cruel, especially if his own power was threatened. Fearing a coup, Herod killed his wife and three sons, historians of the time report. His massive fortress, the Herodian, just outside Bethlehem, guarded the southern approaches to his kingdom. There were countless innocent victims of his cruelty, so his massacre of little children is not unlikely.

New Herods still kill the innocent. Just listen to the daily news.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents reminds us evil is in our world, seeming to contradict the “great joy that is for you and all the people.” Why does God permit such things?

Joseph, warned in a dream, takes the Child and his mother into Egypt, Matthew says. The Child returns from Egypt unharmed, but later Jesus will stand innocent before Pontius Pilate who condemns him to a cruel death. Then, he rises from the dead, promising life to those who share in a death like his.

Our feast today sees the children of Bethlehem sharing in his resurrection, safe in God’s hands. Evil does not have the last word.

“Clothed in white robes, they will walk with me, says the Lord, for they are worthy.” (Antiphon for the Feast of the Holy Innocents)

Matthew’s story was directed, first of all, to Jewish Christians living after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD,, when thousands of innocent people were killed by a massive Roman army. Why did God permit this? Where is the kingdom Jesus Christ promised, they must have asked? We ask this too.

Evil doesn’t triumph, though it strides the world seemingly unopposed, but God saves the weak, the small, the helpless through Jesus, his Son. Matthew’s story of the Magi promises God ‘s kingdom will come to all.

Still, Matthew recognizes those experiencing the suffering of the innocent.. He hears the sobbing and the loud lamentation: “Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”

“She would not be consoled, since they were no more.”

Tomorrow, we return to Luke’s Gospel to hear Simeon prophesy to Mary that a sword will pierce here heart. In the painting below she looks at her Child wondering what will happen to him.

For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

The Feast of the Holy Family, first celebrated by the church in Canada, became a feast in the Christmas season of the universal church in 1920. The First World War had brought about a massive dislocation in family life all over the world. Like the Family in Matthew’s Gospel today, families were trying to escape violence, keep together and bring up children. The church placed this feast in her calendar to aid families challenged by war.

“Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him,” the angel says to Joseph. There’s a promise to every family in God’s promise to Joseph. It’s a promise so many immigrant families displaced by wars, political situations, climate change, need to hear now. God cares for them. Think of families in Ukraine and some war-torn parts of Africa, families on our southern borders escaping political instability. 

The Family of this feast is not a model of a perfect family, safe in secure Nazareth, but an embattled family trying to find its way. It’s a model for embattled families today. 

The Feast of the Holy Family also offers a promise young people in our society, afraid to get married and have children, need to hear. Don’t be afraid of the commitment that is marriage and the children that come to you. God will see you through.

Finally, it’s a promise we all must work to see fulfilled as much as we can.

More than we realize, feasts and seasons alert us to real situations in life. They are graces from God. We need to pay more attention to the feasts we celebrate on our church calendar.

“For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year – in fact, forever. The church’s teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man’s nature” (Pius X.Encyclical Quas primas, 11 December 1925).”

Christmas is over this week for many people: the tree taken down and decorations put away. But the mystery of incarnation is too big for a one day celebration. The church celebrates this mystery through the four weeks of Advent and continues through the days of the Christmas season till the Feast of the Epiphany. 

The celebration of the day of Jesus’ birth may be over, but the mystery of his Incarnation is never over. We are reminded of that in the feasts following Christmas day.

December 26. From earliest times, the church celebrated the Feast of Stephen, the first Christian martyr on this day. Stephen imitated Jesus who came in human likeness and took the form of a slave, enduring death, even death on a Cross. ( Philippians 2) (Acts 6,8 ff). “The love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven,” St. Fulgentius says of Stephen.

December 27. The feast of St. John, the apostle, is another feast celebrated by  the church from earliest times as part of the Christmas mystery. The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, John’s Gospel proclaims. Through the Son of God, the new Adam, we became children of God, made to share in God’s glory.

The shepherds heard angels bringing tidings of great joy to all the people at the birth of Jesus. (December 28) we hear cries of the Innocents put to death by Herod the Great so no rivals challenge his power and throne. The shepherds returned to the dark hills after seeings the Child in the arms of Mary. Evil persists after Jesus is born, but the mystery of the Incarnation promises sorrow turned into joy.

January 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God,. Like Mary, we need to keep reflecting on this mystery in our hearts.

Luke begins his story of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2) with important historical dates. Jesus was born as Caesar Augustus, ruler of the Roman world, ordered a census of the whole world. The Romans saw Augustus a  “savior,” a “god,” who brought peace and prosperity to the Roman world during his long reign. It was a “Golden Age,” the Roman Poet Virgil said.

For Luke, Jesus is the real savior who brings peace to the earth and a greater “Golden Age.”  Augustus, for all the honors paid him, was only an agent in God’s plan preparing for the coming of the Son of God. 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem during“…the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” (Luke 2:2) See the notes to Luke’s Gospel in the New American Bible. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/2?1 . Early Christian sources like Justin Martyr  and Origen– and the evangelists themselves – uphold Bethehem as his birthplace.  

The historic reliability of the gospels is important. Just as important is their theology. God comes humbly into our world, Luke’s Gospel says. That’ s the lesson Jesus’ birth teaches.

Mary, who was with child, and Joseph come to Bethlehem from Nazareth, at least a three day’s journey away, to take part in a government census. They’re ordinary people among many others.  When they get to Bethlehem, there’s no room for them except a stable that’s been carved out from a hillside cave, and there Jesus is born.

Angels announce his birth and sing his praises in Luke’s story, but Jesus is born in the humblest way. “There is nothing glorious about the circumstances of the Messiah’s birth,” a recent commentator on Luke’s gospels says, and that’s what Luke wants to show. “God’s fidelity is worked out in human events, even when appearances seem to deny his presence and power.” ( Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, Sacra Pagina, Collegeville, Minn. 1991, p 52.) 

“Even when appearances seem to deny his presence and power,” even when there are no angels singing in the night, God is with us. That’s what the mystery of the Incarnation teaches. No angels sang when Jesus spent years living unknown in Nazareth . No angels sang when he was opposed and rejected and shunned in his ministry, when he was arrested and cruelly put to death on Calvary. Jesus took human form, the form of a slave, and went to death on a Cross. And from death God raised him to life.

The shepherds go in search of the sign, not a “sign” in the sense that God’s glory is visible and one might say unequivocally: this is the true Lord of the world. Far from it. In this sense, the sign is also a non-sign. God’s poverty is his real sign. But for the shepherds, who had seen God’s glory shining in their fields, this is sign enough. They see inwardly. They see that the angel’s words are true. So the shepherds return home with joy. They glorify God and praise him for what they have heard and seen (cf. Lk 2:20).” (Pope Benedict XVI. Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives . The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.) 

We share this mystery with the shepherds. We may not see his power and his presence, but he is with us and we are with him. The mystery of his birth, the mystery of his Incarnation, is our mystery too.

For the history of Bethlehem, the caves where Jesus was born, the ancient church of the Nativity,  see  The Holy Land. An Oxford Archeological Guide.  Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP. New York 2008)

We’re reading the last of the Advent gospels from the Infancy Narratives of the gospel of Luke. The song of Zachariah after he names his new born child John. 

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, He has come to his people and set the free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, Born of the house of his servant David, Through his prophets he promised of old, That he save us from our enemies, From the hands of those who hate us.

Scholars are very careful what they say when they comment on the gospels. So if we ask “Where do these stories come from?” they usually point to what Luke says at the beginning of his gospel: He consulted eyewitnesses and sources that were available to him, and he wrote about what took place then in an orderly way.

If we ask who are the eyewitnesses for this part of the gospel, scholars venture that Mary, the mother of Jesus, may be Luke’s  principal source. But scholars are cautious and that’s about all they will say.

We ordinary people can take more chances as we look at the scriptures.  In meditating on the scriptures we can go where scholars won’t go.  Of course, we can be wrong.

Suppose we imagine Luke interviewing Mary about Elizabeth and Zachariah. “Did you have any idea before the angel came to you, Mary, that Elizabeth, your cousin, had become pregnant? “

“No”, Mary said, “No, I had no idea. After the angel came to me and told me about Elizabeth I  went down  to  see her in the hill country as quickly as I could. She was six months pregnant. Zachariah was there. He couldn’t speak. He had to write down what had happened in the temple in the days he was there. “

“ I spent three months with them there. We turned to the scriptures to see what God was doing with us. We’re Jewish women, where else would we turn? We went through God’s promises to Abraham, Jacob and David that one of their descendants would come and lead his people. We remembered the mother of Samson, and Anna, the mother of Samuel. They brought children into the world in a way that could not be explained. We read the Prophet: Isaiah and Jeremiah. They spoke of God’s kingdom coming.

When I returned to Nazareth, Joseph told me of his meeting with the angel in a dream. I told him what happened to me. We didn’t understand it all, but we believed that God was about something great, something beyond us. Holy is his name. 

No angel spoke to me after that. “

As we look at the readings for these last days of Advent, can we say that they’re likely the Old Testament readings that Mary and Elizabeth and Zachariah and Joseph looked at when they came together and faced the mystery of God.

As we look at the New Testament readings from the Infancy Narrative, can we say that they came from Luke’s conversations with Mary? I think we can. I may be wrong, but I believe they are.

In the Infancy Narratives we are listening to Mary’s story. There are real people behind these stories and we know who they are.