The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today urge us to contemplate the conditions that cause us to let fear dominate love and generate violent action toward others.
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| Fear in the city |
The First Letter of John proposes a dualism of good and evil in which Christ is the Way through whom our connection with sin is broken.
* [1:8–10] Denial of the condition of sin is self-deception and even contradictory of divine revelation; there is also the continual possibility of sin’s recurrence. Forgiveness and deliverance from sin through Christ are assured through acknowledgment of them and repentance.1
In the Gospel from Matthew, the inclusion of Jesus in the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, because of the fear of Herod, is avoided as the Spirit guides Joseph to escape with the family to Egypt.
* [2:18] Jer 31:15 portrays Rachel, wife of the patriarch Jacob, weeping for her children taken into exile at the time of the Assyrian invasion of the northern kingdom (722–21 B.C.). Bethlehem was traditionally identified with Ephrath, the place near which Rachel was buried (see Gn 35:19; 48:7), and the mourning of Rachel is here applied to her lost children of a later age. Ramah: about six miles north of Jerusalem. The lamentation of Rachel is so great as to be heard at a far distance.2
Luis Rodriguez, S.J. is afraid we have the agility to jump straight to the self-absolutizing stage and, once there, we can easily be tempted to sacrifice others to our own advancement. We can and at times do hurt people (“Innocents”?) in order for ourselves to look better and to improve our position or status. Being aware of this real risk, we can profit from considering once more with Ignatius of Loyola the Lord’s standard or program diametrically opposite to that of Satan, one that leads us through poverty/simplicity to not seeking being honored and to acknowledging humbly before God our position as creatures.
I wonder how many people today would consider that the Holy Family were refugees, having had to leave their homeland to escape the violence that threatened them at home. Refugees do not leave their homeland on a whim, but rather seeking to live in security. They leave behind everything, except their human dignity, which we all –individuals and governments– need to respect.3
Don Schwager quotes “The first martyrs of Christ,” by Chromatius (died 406 AD).
"In Bethlehem therefore all the babies were slain. These innocents who died then on Christ's behalf became the first martyrs of Christ. David refers to them when he says, 'From the mouths of nursing babies you have perfected praise because of your enemies, that you might bring ruin to the enemy' (Psalm 8:2). ... For in this persecution even tiny infants and nursing babies were killed on Christ's behalf and attained to the consummate praise of martyrs. Meanwhile the wicked king Herod was destroyed, he who had usurped the realm to defend himself against the king of the heavens. Thus it is that those blessed babes have deservedly lasted beyond others. They were the first who were worthy to die on Christ’s behalf." (excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 6.2)4
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 2:13-18 concedes that our fears probably won’t take us as far as Herod’s fears took him. But there are plenty of other ways fear can harm us and the people around us. More than anything else, they can convince us that there is no way out. We can feel so bound by fear that we can’t even imagine a life free of it.
You don’t have to be ruled by fear—especially hidden, buried fear! Take some time today to ask Jesus if there are some unacknowledged fears in your life, and then see what comes to mind. If you detect something operating under the surface, ask him to help you. You might not feel any different at first, but don’t give up—keep asking!
Friar Jude Winkler shares the change in theology in the dualism of 1 John compared to the Gospel of John. Herod was a paranoid megalomaniac who killed his wife, three sons and brother in law. Slaughter of children is not beyond his possibility. Friar Jude notes that Matthew was able to apply suffering of the innocent and unborn of Rachael’s time to Jesus life to support the call to care for the weakest in society.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, suggests that there are good, beautiful, and true gems in Christianity worth holding on to. At the same time, there are many unhelpful and even harmful parts of what has passed for Christianity that we need to move beyond.
One of Richard’s foundational convictions is that God—who is Love—is with and in us and all of creation. But we’ve been conditioned or taught to see ourselves as separate from God and each other. Contemplation opens our hearts to experience this union and become an embodied presence of healing and creativity in our world. As Quaker author and elder Parker Palmer suggests, ask these important questions: “What do we want to let go of? What do we desire to give ourselves to?”6
Reaction to our fear, without the counsel of the Spirit, threatens to take us away from our journey to holiness. When fear and love confront, love always wins.
References
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(n.d.). 1 John, chapter 1 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 28, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/1
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(n.d.). John, chapter 2 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 28, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/2:33
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(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved December 28, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
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(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved December 28, 2018, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
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(n.d.). 2019 Daily Meditations Theme - Old and New: An Evolving Faith. Retrieved December 28, 2018, from https://cac.org/2019-daily-meditations/
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