Peace on Earth!
In the ‘Christmas Octave,’ the week-plus-one-day beginning Dec. 25 and ending Jan. 1, we observe a number of special days. Two wonderful celebrations of the Infant Christ, the Feast of the Nativity with angel choirs and shepherds in the fields and the Holy Family at rest in a stable, and the Feast of the Holy Name, are summarized in Luke’s Gospel by the words, “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”
Saint Stephen and St. John are remembered on the 26th and 27th, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents on the 28th (transferred this year to the 28th and 29th). Holy Innocents comes from a passage of the Gospel of Matthew, 2:13-18. This introduces a dissonant chord into the lyrical joy of the narrative. In it, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, sending the Holy Family to Egypt for sanctuary with the message that Herod will come seeking the infant Jesus to destroy him, jealous of the prophecy that the child would become king.
Herod first sought to locate the child by trickery, but the Wise Men were also attuned to their dreams and did not provide the information he sought. He then acted from the brutal calculus of tyranny. He ordered the slaughter of every child in the region two years of age or under.
We will note, for now, the tempting possibilities in this for discussion of the role of free will and the nature of divine communication and the similarity of the situation of the Holy Family to that of so many others today. These are worthwhile reflections. Please make time to pursue them together with family and friends.
In this brief time together, another observation is at hand. It is that, whether through the evil calculations of a tyrant, or by the cold acceptance of collateral damage in the struggle against tyranny, it is always the innocent children who are the first to suffer from violence. Matthew grimly forebodes, “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’“
Add to this a growing understanding which comes from longitudinal studies in psychology. The impacts of trauma — particularly violent, family-destroying trauma — in early childhood affects the lives of generations to follow. The intergenerational transmission of the life-denying effects of early childhood trauma are only now being generally recognized as strong vectors of social ill, in urgent need of healing.
This is healing which calls to those of us who yearn for peace.
• Fr. Gordon Blue is the Rector at Holy Trinity Church.
