THE HOLY INNOCENTS, MARTYRS - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

We praise you, O God,
we acknowledge you to be the Lord;
the noble army of martyrs praise you, O Lord.

1 JOHN 1:5-2:2 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We know that nothing unclean can come before God's presence this is why we must always ask for forgiveness, mercy, and pardon for all our offenses against God and neighbor every day. As the evangelist tells us God is light and in Him there in no darkness and if are His children then there must be no darkness in us as well. But You know, my Lord and my God that I am constantly stumbling. Thank You for readily forgiving all my sins each time I come to You with a repentant and contrite heart. I am so grateful for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, thank You, Lord, for instituting this Sacrament of healing and restoration. Thank You for Your generosity in forgiving me every time I turn to You in humility and sincere contrition. Nothing delights You more than to restore Your friendship with me and with the Father.

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.

Thank You for sending us the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, and the Helper who remains with us and enables us to receive all that we need not only to desire to be holy and pure but to strive with His help to live as children of the light. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your unceasing intercession with the Father for us whom Your Blood has saved. Your sacrifice has the power to take away our sins and the sins of the whole world. 

PSALM 123(124):2-5,7-8 ©

If the Lord had not been on our side

when men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive
when their anger was kindled.

Then would the waters have engulfed us,

the torrent gone over us;
over our head would have swept
the raging waters.

Indeed the snare has been broken

and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler.

MATTHEW 2:13-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You identified so closely with the sufferings of the least, the last, and the lowest in the world that no one can ever say that You do not understand their suffering, sorrows, and fears. You O Lord are God and it beggars the mind to wrap our heads around the fact that God made Himself so vulnerable for us. You became a little beggar, born in poverty, born in a stable, unknown, and unrecognized by the world except by the wise men who traveled vast distances to pay You homage and by Herod who when told a new King was born desired to see You so he could destroy you. He saw You, the Son of David, the legitimate heir as a threat to his throne. He did not know that You did not come to establish and rule a kingdom on earth that would pass away but to establish the eternal Kingdom of God.

If only we could all be like Joseph - attentive to the Lord awake or asleep, and ready to do His bidding no matter how inconvenient or difficult it may be. Joseph was a servant of God, ready to obey no matter what was asked of him. He was completely surrendered to God. When the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’  That's what Joseph did. No questions asked. His response was immediate. So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. 

Only by pondering, meditating on, and contemplating these events prayerfully can we grasp the full extent of what it meant to travel in haste in dangerous conditions to an unknown country as a refugee. The world is filled with people who have been displaced from their land for one reason or another and they can take comfort in this truth - God knows because He too was once a refugee, a stranger in a strange land. God understands. But God has the power to free us, to break every chain, and to restore all we have lost when we accept Your invitation to reject our slavery to sin and receive the freedom that comes from faith in You.

The world is filled with cruel, barbaric, power-hungry, people like  Herod in every age who will stop at nothing to keep their temporal power no matter the cost in human life and suffering.  Herod ordered the slaughter of innocent baby boys aged two and under. 

The words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah are heard to this day and will be heard as long as there are cruel despots in this sin-ridden world.  

A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loudly lamenting:
it was Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted because they were no more.