A Storm In Bethlehem

Gospel MT 2:13-18

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.


At the time of the birth of Jesus, Bethlehem was a small and very insignificant town. The name means House of Bread and Jesus was born in a stable and his crib was the manger, the place where the animals would go to get their food. We think of the place as silent, innocent, a great place to be born and raised.  Then enters king Herod, an evil despot whose whole mission in life was to keep his job as king.  You can imagine the rage that built up in him when he realized that the magi were not coming back to tell him where to find the so-called new King of the Jews.  But, he had a solution.  He did not know who, but he did know where.  He dispatched his soldiers and told them to kill every boy-child two years of age and younger.  Herod felt that this would surely end the reign of this upstart who had designs upon his throne.  And so it happened as he commanded.  We are not sure how many boys were killed that day but we know that the child that would one day die for our sins upon a cross was able to escape to Egypt. 

These boys were the first martyrs for they were victims of a persecution against Christ. These children died in place of the Christ child and in doing so saved His life. Herod was satisfied with the blood spilled in that little town and was sure that his reign was safe.  Of course, his rule was never in any danger from the Gentle Child.  Jesus did not come to rule a physical kingdom but rather He came to rule our hearts.  Our hearts must ache when we think of the blood spilled over the ages in the name of Christ. He did not come that we might shed blood in His name, no,  He came that we all may be one as He and the Father are one and learn to live as one people with one God and Father above and heaven as our inheritance. He prayed for this unity at the Last Supper. 

What we learn from the slaughter of the innocents is that we should always be ready to defend and explain our faith and we should do this without thinking of the consequences.  In this world today there are many like Herod who do not want the truth of the Gospel spread and like Herod, they will reach into their bag of tricks and do what they can to stifle the growth of the kingdom.  But we walk into the future, whatever it may hold, secure in the knowledge that God has already won the ultimate victory.  

Ahh The Good Old Days

"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!"

Do you remember that great old film "The Ten Commandments?  One of my favorite characters in this story is Edward G. Robinson who played some sort of Hebrew that was better off than most of the folks. You could depend on him to be the one to stir up trouble when trouble needed to be stirred up. He didn't really believe in all of this religious stuff, he was happy to make a comfortable living and to keep himself well nourished.  He scoffed when it came time to mark the door posts with blood so that the angel of death would pass over.  He thought it was all a bunch of nonsense and he went to bed without bothering to do it. It was lucky for him that someone, a Hebrew that loved his fellow Hebrews, marked the doorpost for him and he was saved on that fateful night. The Egyptians who in the morning were mourning the loss of all of the first born in their land begged the Hebrews to go and gave them gold and jewels and probably a road map to show them the fastest way out of town.  Every chance he got, Robinson's character stirred up the people. And when the way grew drear and hunger afflicted the children of Israel he reminded them of all the great food that they had back in good old Egypt.  You could almost smell the onions cooking in the fleshpots!  Moses, played by Charlton Heston, went to God.  You could almost hear God saying, "Yeah, Yeah, I hear them.  When are they going to get the idea that I am going to take care of them, Moses?"  Then he promises them flesh in the evening and bread in the morning.  The only losers in this story, of course, are the doves that got invited to dinner each night. Do you wonder why it took forty years to get to the promised land? A blind camel could stumble into it in a few weeks.  Oh well, that's that story of the Israelites, one stiff necked people, just like us. 

When the Hebrews were hungry, they began pining for food and I guess that the food they remembered in Egypt was pretty good.  Then again, anything is better when you have nothing.  What would they have to do to get their delicious Egyptian Pot-o-Flesh?  They would have to go back to Egypt, of course, and while they might get the food they craved, the would get the slavery that they did not crave back. 

So it is with us. We beg God to relieve us from this burden or that and when the way gets tough we look back and say that the good old days weren't so bad.  We forget that if we take up the sin again, we pick up the slavery to it.  Don't you find it amazing that over thousands of years we as a species have learned so little?  No wonder why God had to come to earth and save us.  We could do nothing for ourselves. 

In order to enter heaven, we have to be free of our attachments to sin. If we need to, we choose to go to Purgatory to clean up to ready ourselves to be in God's presence.  The Poor Souls need the prayers of the faithful on earth to help them.  Please remember them today.

The Fugitive

On one occasion, after Moses had grown up,
when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor,
he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.  
Looking about and seeing no one,
he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Here is something that may tax your memory if you, like me, are a baby boomer.  One of the iconic television series back in the day was a program called "The Fugitive." I am talking about the TV series that featured David Janssen that ran from 1963 to 1967 for a total of 120 episodes.  It followed the story of Richard Kimble who had been convicted of killing his wife and had been sentenced to death.  On his way to Death Row the train he was on derailed and he was able to free himself and he began his odyssey to find "the one armed man" whom he said was the actual killer. Week after week he stays one step ahead of Lt. Gerrard who seems to be able to devote quite a bit of his time in chasing Richard.  In the end, a much anticipated final chapter the one arm man confesses to Richard but then is shot by Lt. Gerrard and Richard accepts his fate but since he was a good guy someone is found that testifies that the one armed man was the killer of Richard's wife and the show ends with the narrator saying "September Fifth, the running stops." Richard leaves the court and shakes the hand of Lt. Gerrard.  Fade to black.  

In today's reading, we hear of the time when Moses who is destined to be the leader of the Hebrew people that leads them out of Egypt, killed an Egyptian that was brutalizing a Hebrew.  He hides the body and continues with his day.  The next day he breaks up a fight between two Hebrews and one of them asks if he is going to kill them like he killed the Egyptian.  Moses knew the jig was up.  If these lowly Hebrews heard the story, then everyone knew the story. The Pharaoh was ticked off and Moses and wanted him to be brought before him so that he could condemn him.  Moses showed how fast he could run and he got out of Dodge as quickly as his legs could move him.  

What can we say about Moses here?  He murdered another man, but then again, it was before the Ten Commandments were handed to man so it wasn't technically wrong, was it?  Well, even before the Ten Commandments, men had in their heart a revulsion for those that took the life of others, they had a conscience back then.  If he had no conscience, then Moses would not have run. He knew in his heart what he did was wrong and we see that because he hid the body in the sand.  If it was okay to kill, well he would not have bothered to bury the victim. 

Now, imagine God in heaven.  What do you do with a man that has shed the blood of another?  Do you give him the mark of Cain and punish him for the rest of his life? What do you do?  In this case, God had His plan ready. For a number of years, He would allow Moses to be at peace in a foreign land.  He would marry, not the girl of his dreams mind you, and he would become a man of great wealth and influence in the region.  Then God put it into his heart that He had to return to Egypt.  He did this not by a dream or not by sky writing, but by a bush that was on fire and yet was not consumed.  And Moses returned to Egypt and eventually led the slaves of the Egyptians out of bondage.

We see here that God can make good come out of evil. The path that led to Jesus was trodden first by a murderer. Moses never lost his temper, it served him well on the forty year journey.  At the end of his life, when all of the original slaves had died off, Moses was told that he would need to be content with a view of the promised land and that he would not himself set foot there.  And so they buried him and God's plan to save you and me continued.  

I am not saying to go out and murder someone but remember the story of Moses. God can work with the clay he created no matter how many defects there are in the clay.  Just be ready to say to the Lord, "Yes, Lord, send me for I am your servant."

The poor souls in purgatory cannot help themselves.  They need prayers from the faithful still on earth.  Remember them today as you go about your business, an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be takes so little of our time and it means so much to them.