Gospel: December 28, 2024
December 28, 2024 (Saturday)
Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs
Psalter: Proper / (Red)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 124: 2-3, 4-5, 7b-8
Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler’s snare.
1st Reading: 1 John 1: 5 – 2: 2
Gospel: Matthew 2: 13-18
After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon be looking for the child in order to kill him.”
Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. In this way, what the Lord had said through the prophet was fulfilled: I called my son out of Egypt.
When Herod found out that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were 2 years old or under. This was done, according to what he had learned from the wise men about the time when the star appeared.
In this way, what the prophet Jeremiah had said was fulfilled: A cry is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation: Rachel weeps for her children. She refuses to be comforted, for they are no more.
Reflection:
“Trusting God’s plan”
Giving witness to the Word of life, the incarnate Word, means accepting life as it is in all its beauty as well as the daily struggles it brings. Daily struggles in life are real. We can always hold on to the holy innocence within each one of us that we may be able to live up to the challenge of giving witness to the Word of life despite the struggles.
Luke and Matthew have their respective accounts of the Infancy Narrative. If we compare the Lucan account, which is set in a joyful atmosphere, we can see that the Matthew’s Infancy Narrative narrates the struggles of the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and of all the others related to them such as the innocents of Bethlehem.
The pericope today narrates the flight to Egypt of Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus. The same pericope narrates the massacre of the children upon Herod’s order. Struggles are real but God is always bigger than any struggles in life. Hence, we can always trust God’s plan. Our holy innocence within enables us to cooperate with the divine plan.
