Rachel weeping for her children: the truth, power and lesson of the Holy Innocents

Then Herod, seeing that he had been made fun of by the Magi, was very angry indeed. And he sent and destroyed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in its boundaries of two years and under, in accordance with what he had exactly inquired about from the Magi. Then it was fulfilled, what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, who said: “a voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and much lamentation, Rachel weeping over her children and she would not be comforted – because they are no more.“ Matthew 2:16-19.

Following hard on the birth of Christ, we have the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and this passage has several features that are typical of Matthew’s Gospel. It starts with Herod, whom we have already met, earlier in the narrative; the name of “Herod” ought to send a shudder down the spine.

We have been given the information that Herod was “utterly disturbed”, along with all of Jerusalem, for he does not at all like the idea of “one born as King of the Jews”, and he is determined, like all his family, to eliminate any threat at all to his throne. We notice, of course, that Herod actually believes that Jesus is the promised Messiah, for he asks his religious experts to find out where the Messiah is supposed to be born. They now press a button on their computers, and come up with the answer: “Bethlehem”, on the basis of a quotation from the prophet Micah.

As we listen to the Christmas story, wondering how the child would survive Herod’s paranoia, we worry that when the Magi discover the baby Jesus they are going to blow the whole thing apart by rushing back to Herod and telling him precisely where they found the newborn king. But of course God is in this story, and so after the Magi have given their gifts to Jesus, they are sent a dream to prevent them going back to Herod. That is the cue for Joseph to take the child and his mother to Egypt.

In our gospel passage above, we see the consequences of this; you do not mess with Herod with impunity, and we watch the unfolding of the Horror Story: “When Herod saw that he had been mocked by the Magi he was very angry indeed.“ We already know that he is the worst kind of tyrant, who believes in killing as the way of coping with potential enemies, and Matthew tells us that “he was very angry indeed”, so we are expecting tragedy and drama, “shock and awe”.

What, then, is he going to do? He does what paranoid leaders always do when they feel threatened: “he sent and destroyed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in its boundaries of two years and under.” This is what you do if you are a corrupt ruler, when you see opposition on the horizon.

And what is that about “two years”? Simple: in the previous story, we were witnesses as “Herod secretly [and what a depth of meaning is hidden in that word!] summoned the Magi and inquired of them the precise time when the star had appeared”. That is how Herod was able to calculate the period of two years, probably adding a few months to be on the safe side.

We notice, uneasily perhaps, that Herod is very much a believer; he understands that the star is aimed at him, and he needs to find out everything he can about the circumstances of this dangerous birth, and prevent it from happening. Because if indeed a “King of the Jews” has been born, then that spells an end to Herod’s regime. Hence his terrible “preventative” action. And even though Herod fails in his intimate aim, the reader will of course know the end of the story: the child, when grown up, is after all going to be killed, under another Herod; so the shadow of the Cross falls across the crib at Christmas (and this must also be a part of our contemplation at this time).

But because God is, as I say, in the story, it cannot end there; and Matthew makes a comment that comes several times, in one form or another, during these first two chapters of his gospel: “And so it was fulfilled, the words spoken through Jeremiah the prophet”. (We should perhaps remember that Jeremiah is probably Matthew’s favourite prophet.)

What does Jeremiah say at this point? “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and much lamentation, Rachel weeping over her children and she would not be comforted – because they are no more.” What is going on here? Well, Matthew is certain that God has the whole thing under control, and since all scripture points to Jesus, as Matthew understands the matter, the original context is not particularly important.

That context is one of Jeremiah’s rare expressions of hope for restoration, even though there is apparently no promise here of any such thing. Ramah is the place where those destined for exile in Babylon gathered ahead of their journey. And Jeremiah did not go to Babylon with the rest of them, but stayed in Judaea, to preach God’s word – though the Judaeans did not listen to him very much. And later on, Jeremiah enacted the story of Jesus, in that he too escaped to Egypt. So there is quite a lot going on here.

Very often Christians make use of this passage to express our horror of abortion; clearly that is not quite what the story is about, but it serves as a reminder that the powerful are all too often inclined to treat with dismissive, not to say lethal, contempt, any new life that threatens them. What will you take from this passage, as you continue your own Christmas journey?

The post Rachel weeping for her children: the truth, power and lesson of the Holy Innocents first appeared on Catholic Herald.

The post Rachel weeping for her children: the truth, power and lesson of the Holy Innocents appeared first on Catholic Herald.