Choice and Innocents

A priest friend commented recently that the liturgy of the Church after Christmas brings us sharply back from the peacefulness of Christmas. Today, the Roman Catholic Lectionary brings texts for the feast of the first martyrs, the Holy Innocents, children which Matthew tells us were slaughtered by Herod after failure of his plan to find the Christ child in Bethlehem. We come back to reality in our world where innocents die daily. Unfortunately, we can call up many examples. Where is God in these atrocities? Many wanderers on the spiritual journey have wrestled with this question. It is an essential phase of our struggle to embrace holiness. A response is that God is the first to mourn the tragedies which result from the choices of people. The free choice of people to move toward intimacy with the Divine or to withdraw to the domain of the ego, pride and self-worship is essential for the relationship with the in dwelling Spirit to grow freely and fully.