The Slaughter of the Holy Innocents
The slaughtering continues even today
The story is being repeated even after two thousand years with far more ferocity and cruelty in the same district and close to the same border-crossing through which Jesus, Mary and Joseph escaped. Jesus was lucky to escape into Egypt but today mothers and children wanting to escape into Egypt find the border gates closed and firmly bolted. There is no chance of escape. High walls, barbed wires, and soldiers armed with machine guns stand guard. Soldiers of Herod killed with swords, one at a time. Today cluster bombs and guided missiles raining from the sky kill dozens at a time. Parents who are living in small villages and children playing in the fields, and who have never known Hamas nor ever heard the name of Netanyahu are the victims of modern Herods. Innocents are being massacred as they try to flee. Machine guns have taken the place of swords. Speeding jets have taken the place of horses. The world has progressed but towards its own destruction!
Oppression, persecution, and slaughter are but signs of deep insecurity and fear. Today’s monarchs and despots dressed in neat suits and wearing ‘netas’ caps, protect their position and perpetuate their power by silencing free speech, controlling media, jailing opponents, and putting to death even innocent women. They neatly cover their insecurity and fear in shining wraps of patriotism, love for the nation, and defense of the Constitution of the country. So long as despots rule, innocents will die. Truth does not fear, only duplicity, falsehood, lies lead to fear and insecurity.
Jesus escaped the hands of Herod but he will not escape the hands of Pilate. He will be slaughtered by Pilate not by sword but by nails and a lance. He died so that no more Innocents may die. The slaughtering of the Holy Innocents is but an anticipation of the slaughter of ‘The Holy Innocent.’
-Fr T.V. George sdb, 28 December 2023, Feast of Holy Innocents
No comments:
Post a Comment