Daily Gospel Reflection for December 28, 2016

Today's Gospel: Matthew 2, 13-18 - Holy Innocents

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a day when Catholics remember the baby boys in Bethlehem slaughtered by Herod. It is also called Childermas, instituted around 450 AD, and celebrated during the octave of Christmas to not only remember but honour the Church’s first martyrs who gave their life for Christ. More recently, the modern Church annually reaffirms her commitment to the sanctity of life on this feast.

However, I want to focus on the question of the existence of evil in our world. God the Father intervened to save the life of His Son by sending Joseph a dream. Joseph was a man who had heard and obeyed a previous Divine dream; he changed his mind and married the pregnant Mary even though it went against logic, his whole culture, and religious beliefs. So Joseph was a man of God, attuned to the Father’s voice as were the magi who were warned not to tell Herod where the infant Jesus could be found. Yet all these innocent babies were still slaughtered at the hand of an egotistical tyrant, an evil man who chose to defy all the was right and just.

We are not puppets. God gave us freewill to choose to act justly or not. That is the great mystery surrounding the question of evil in our world.

Ponder:

How can you attune yourself so that you may hear the voice of God?

Pray:

Lord, I choose to submit my mind, heart, and will to you so I may be an instrument of blessings to those around me.

Melanie Jean Juneau is a mother of nine who blogs at joy of nine9. Her writing is humorous and heart-warming; thoughtful and thought-provoking. Part of her call and her witness is to write the truth about children, family, marriage and the sacredness of life. Melanie is the administrator of ACWB, the Editor in Chief at CatholicStand, a writer at CAPC & author of Echoes of the Divine.