Rachel weeping for her children

SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER (Mt 2,13-18)

Rachel is the image of Jerusalem. She cries because some among her sons died by the sword, others from hunger, others from the plague and many others were torn and led into exile to Babylon. The Lord comforts this mother in tears. Tomorrow he will wipe away every tear. He will give her, her children in conversion and fidelity to the covenant. For sin they have been taken away from her. By grace and loyalty they are given back to her. Here is the word of prophecy: “Thus says the Lord: In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of bitter weeping! Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled because her children are no more. Thus says the Lord: Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward, says the Lord, they shall return from the enemy’s land. There is hope for your future, says the Lord; your sons shall return to their own borders. I hear, I hear Ephraim pleading: You chastised me, and I am chastened; I was an untamed calf. If you allow me, I will return, for you are the Lord, my God. I turn in repentance; I have come to myself, I strike my breast; I blush with shame, I bear the disgrace of my youth” (Jer 31,15-19). Sin always takes away. Conversion and fidelity to God always restores in an even more wonderful way. If the children of Jerusalem had remained with her, she would have had idolatrous, immoral and unjust children. For a moment they were removed from her. Now she has them but no longer as idolaters.

Even the Bethlehem mothers have had their children removed, not because of a sin of their own, nor because of their mothers’ sin. They have been taken away by a horrible sin of foolishness of the proud, wicked and insipid King Herod. This, blinded by his pride, which always results in impiety, thought that the born King of the Jews would have taken the kingdom from him tomorrow. But Jesus did not come to take away the kingdom from any king in this world. Instead he came to make every man king of his kingdom of glory and eternal light. For this sin the children were taken away from their mothers. But they were only removed for a moment. The Lord gave them back dressed in immortal glory. The Church celebrates their martyrdom. They are martyrs because they have taken the place of Christ the Lord. The heavenly Father allows the life of the body to be taken away, but to cover the soul and body with his eternal light. The evil done by man’s sin is eternally rewarded with a glory that goes beyond all of our merit and the very life offered to him, to remain faithful to his covenant and his love. Never does the Lord remain indebted to anyone. Never might anyone boast of having done anything that is not already due to him. Life belongs to the Lord from the first moment of its conception.

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “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.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”

History must never be looked at with the eyes of time and worse with the eyes of sin. It must be looked at with the eyes of eternity and the light that comes to us from the Holy Spirit. Looking at history from time or from sin provokes reactions of foolishness and great ignorance in us. It also leads to judgment and condemnation. Instead, looked at with the eyes of the Holy Spirit and eternity, we give ourselves to the divine will and worship its mystery. History is the mystery given to man. It can be conducted to eternal joy or perdition forever. These children, who died innocently because of the foolishness of a king, brought their history into eternal bliss. Instead, Herod in his foolishness brought history into darkness and perdition.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, guide us to bring our life into the eternal homes.