HEROD KILLS CHILDREN

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 28 December 2013

 HEROD KILLS CHILDREN

Pause. “Be silent, be still, alone, empty before your God...”

Reading. “Rachel was weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they were no more.” (Matt 2:13-18)  

Reflection.  The Assyria invasions in the time of Jeremiah ravaged the country and children were massacred. Now, at the time of Jesus’ birth, a Jewish leader massacres children in an attempt to do away with Jesus who he sees as a threat. Innocent children dying and mothers weeping is something repeated in every war, famine, epidemic (HIV/AIDS) or flood. In every age children bear the weight of the decisions of adults. Their lives are frustrated or ruined before they can even begin. “Let the children come to me for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” (Matt19:13) Jesus sets in sharp contrast the indifference of “the world” and the way God sees things.

Prayer. Father, we pray to join with Rachel in lamenting the suffering of our world, especially the suffering of the innocent and the weak. May we see the world through the eyes of children – full of hope and longing! Amen.