God is light, and in him there is no darkness at
all. If we say, “We have fellowship with
him,” while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in
truth. But if we walk in the light as he
is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of his
Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5B-7
When the magi 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.” Matthew
2:13-14
Piety
During this Christmas season,
as we pray before the Nativity scene, may we pray in a particular way for those
suffering persecution for the faith. May
the joy of Christmas always be in our hearts and we reach out, especially to
those who suffer violence, discrimination and all manner of injustice because
of their faithfulness to the Good News.(Based on prayers and Tweets from @Pontifex: the Twitter account of Pope Francis)
Study
Jesus may have come in peace
but his peace has been met with violence since his birth. Maybe it is Newton’s Law of Power Politics. Every act of peace, love and kindness will be
met by an equal and opposite act of violence, hatred and aggression.
Within hours of celebrating
Christmas, we have two holy days which mark how violent society was when faced
with the Christian threat: the feast of
St. Stephen the first martyr and then the Feast of the Holy Innocents whose
blood (although not technically Christian) was spilled while Herod sought to
eliminate Jesus as a threat to his rule.
It was not until three decades later that his son Herod Antipater
presided over the execution of John the Baptist and trial and crucifixion of
Jesus of Nazareth.
Action
Violence against Jesus and
his followers has never let up. Last
week, Michael Gerson, writing in The Washington Post, tackled the subject of the “War on Christians.” He wrote:
In some parts
of the world, Herod’s massacre of the innocents is a living tradition. On
Christmas Day in Iraq, 37 people were killed in bomb attacks in Christian
districts of Baghdad. Radical Islamists mark — and stain — the season with
brutality and intolerance.
The
violence, of course, is not restricted by the calendar. In recent months, we’ve
seen Coptic Christians gunned down in Cairo and churches burned. Thousands of
Syrian Christians have fled to Turkey. “Where we live,” said one refugee, “10
churches have been burned down. . . . When the local priest was executed, we decided to
leave.”
According to Vatican radio,
Pope Francis appealed on Thursday for Christians who suffer violence,
discrimination and all manner of injustice because of their faithfulness to
Christ and His Gospel. The Pope’s call for prayerful solidarity with persecuted
faithful came on the Feast of St Stephen, the first martyr, and a day after
bomb attacks on a Catholic church and a Christian neighborhood market in
Baghdad, Iraq, that killed thirty-eight people. “We are close to those brothers
and sisters who, like St. Stephen, are unjustly accused and subjected to
violence of various kinds,” said Pope Francis. He went on to say, “This happens
especially where religious freedom is still not guaranteed or not fully
realized.”
Where can you take the light
and spirit of Jesus to bring peace and understanding to someone who is restless
and feeling darkness in their faith?
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