Rachel at Christmas

December 28 – Fourth Day in the Octave of Christmas – The Holy Innocents

1 John 1:5—2:2 / Psalm 124:2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8 / Matthew 2:13-18

Rachel at Christmas

Watching the news around Christmas time can bring you down. I can’t remember the last Christmas that I didn’t see a tragic story reported. One year a devastating Tsunami hit the coast of India. Another year it was an earthquake in Italy. On the rare occasion that there is no national or international tragedy to report on or around Christmas, there is usually a more local one – the fatal car crash; the family home that burned down, etc.

Closer to home I inevitably hear of someone who has lost a loved one near the holidays. These public or private stories of shattered lives and darkened dreams fall upon the holiday season like a patch of dense fog or a dark curtain, obscuring the light of Christmas.

Today’s feast commemorating the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem reflects the reality that time marches on not worrying so much about the celebrations by which we choose to mark it. The world spins the same as ever and tragedy is no respecter of holidays.

“The weary world rejoices” sings the Christmas Carole, but the nightly news heralds the same old song, chronicling and highlighting every woe, and, even as we recall how Innocence was born – or reborn – tragedy and suffering pay no heed, and respect not our holidays, dampening our cheer.

This feast, honoring Bethlehem’s unwitting martyrs, who had not even reached the age of reason, offers us no explanation for the cruelty of fear-enraged human beings or nature’s unbidden upheavals. These tragedies may cause us to question the validity of the hope we hold to as unwarranted and unworthy of our trust. But in exile Israel learned to hope.

I can think of no satisfying way to resolve the enigma of suffering that seems to mark Christmastime each year. These things happen at other times of the year too, but they feel all the more tragic for the triumphant feast on which they visit us. As we hold triumph and tragedy in tension during this season, perhaps we can gain insight into the way these two experiences intermingle during the rest of our year.

·        Imagine a painting with a left and a right panel – a diptych.

o   On the left side of the diptych imagine the scene of a woman, Rachel, weeping for loss of her children. See the emotion on her face, the tears coming down her cheeks: what is your feeling?

o   On the right side imagine an idyllic manger scene with Joseph looking harmoniously over the shoulder of the peaceful Virgin holding the infant Jesus out to us with his arms open, ready to be swaddled in our arms. What do you feel?

o   Allow Mary, Joseph and Jesus to interact with Rachel. What happens?