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The Holy Innocents
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with the Right Rev Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York.
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York
Good morning
Today the Church remembers the Holy Innocents who were killed because God’s Christ, the Prince of Peace, had come into the world.
Joseph listens again to a dream.
The terrible wrath of Herod is about to be unleashed. In his jealous fury he will strike at every child under two. There can be no challengers to his throne. So Joseph gathers up his family and flees for safety.
Christmas, we discover – for it is still the Christmas season - isn’t very Christmasy. Or at least not as we expect. Christmas has consequences. For those of us who turn to Christ, and for those of us who turn away.
Oh, if only such violence was a one off, or a thing of the past; but, no, genocide, race hatred, child abuse, they still defame our world today. Children still needlessly suffer. Horrors are still inflicted upon them. Rachel is still weeping for her children.
The human heart is capable of terrible hatred. We all dream of empires. Our avarice and fury shows just how much Christ is needed. And powerful men – and it is usually men – still cast others aside.
The human heart cannot get better on its own. That is the nub of it. We need Joseph’s dream instead; of safe refuge with God and the forgiveness only God can bring. That is why Christ has come. This is why the dreams of Christmas matter.
So, tender God, reach out to the suffering of the world, stay the hand of the violent, comfort the tears of the sorrowful, hear the cries of those who long for justice and direct our way upon the paths of peace as we see them in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.