to destroy him

Tuesday, December 28, 2010 The Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Feast)

First Reading: Psalm: Gospel: 1 John 1:5 -- 2:2 Psalm 124:2-5, 7-8 Matthew 2:13-18

Matthew 2:13 ... "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."

It is easy to fall into the deception that everybody just wants to love eachother and get a long. But the truth is that there is a force in the world that is "anti-Christ". As Christians we must be on our guard. Jesus urges his desciples to stay awake. That is not because they will miss him as much as they will not see the enemy coming. This doesn't mean that we become like the enemy, being filled with hate and violance, but that we be realistically aware that we do have enemies and they want to see us gone.

Father, help me by your Holy Spirit to see clearly the truth and to act rightly in the face of trial. Amen

Holy Innocents

I was thinking about the sermon today as it related to the Holy Innocents, the slaughter of the children. It occurs to me that today we have a similar situation. In addition to countries that have civil war and terrorist regimes we here in the USA through political correctness and the guise of tolerance are killing the youth by robbing them of the truth of Christ. We are increasing the possibility of their eternal death by removing the knowledge of Christ and his mercy and grace and promoting an atheistic culture that will die with the earth when the final judgment comes.
The question is where is the joy in this and where is God's hand? We must have faith even in this, that as bleak as it may look, God is greater than he that is in the world. We must faithfully celebrate the presence of Christ, boldly proclaim his truth, and look forward to his ultimate and eternal victory.

Merry Christmas