Today the Church remembers the infants slaughtered by Herod, and the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. It's a grim reminder that the Gospel is not good news to tyrants. The fear that lives at the heart of tyranny leads to mass destruction and the worst of lives, both for the victims and for the tyrants. Jesus interrupts the message that domination is the mark of power, opening a door into the power of vulnerability and openness. Then and now, power lies in following God and the path of love. On this day, we see the very human cost of refusing this awareness and substituting our own fear for the rich life we are offered in Christ.
And, as we hear that awful story, we pray for the victims of tyranny today. We pray for the children sacrificed to the greed and hatred of contemporary "rulers." We pray for those who grow up in trash heaps, in detention centers, in refugee camps, in hellish "homes." We pray for those who are separated from their parents by a border or a prison fence; we pray for those sacrificed to someone else's idea of sexual or gender purity; those who are targeted for "ethnic cleansing" or "re-education."
And we pray for the perpetrators of these crimes. We pray for legislators and for those who enforce the laws they make. We pray for those who vote for people who would lock up or execute those whose offense is poverty or racial difference. We pray for ourselves, when we fail to protest. I pray for myself, for my weak and comfortable heart. I pray God to announce to the tyrant in me that God is with the poor, the powerless, the forgotten and rejected. And I pray to respond, not as Herod did, killing the messenger to silence the message, but with courage and compassion.
Some of my Companions are doing this work. Together we all struggle with how to respond in our own way. Please pray with me, with us, that we all may be bearers of the good news.
No comments:
Post a Comment