Sermon for the feast of the Holy Innocents
Today
is one of the most uncomfortable,
and even distressing feasts
in the Church Kalendar.
Today,
in amidst all the joy,
happiness,
feasting and merriment,
we are faced with atrocity
- naked atrocity.
Many of us
try to turn away
and focus on the events
of Christmas Day
rather than on the
deaths of little babies.
That's natural.
So why remember it at all?
And if we must remember it,
why do we remember it here
at Christmas time?
[PAUSE]
Well,
the day after Christmas,
we remember the death
of St Stephen.
And that doesn't seem
to bother us as much.
His death,
although distressing
is, in some way,
chosen by St Stephen.
He could have just shut up
and said nothing,
but instead glorifies God
and is killed for it.
His death doesn't
affect us
in the same way
as the Holy Innocents.
But surely,
St Stephen was a baby once,
so why is the death
of the babies of Bethlehem
so much more dreadful?
Why is the death of a newborn
so much more horrible
in our eyes
than the murder
of a young man?
[PAUSE]
We react to death
in the proportion
that we love.
We remember
that grief is a transformation
of our love
because we can
no longer engage
with the person we love.
The baby newly born
is small, innocent and helpless
born separated from mother
and separated from God.
A baby is born
needing love,
needing that human goodness
to be nourished
and cared for,
to grow and become
her own person.
And,
in Bethlehem,
instead of that love
the baby meets a sword,
[PAUSE]
If that appals you,
if you feel like crying,
if you are disturbed by that,
then there is love in you.
Well done!
In grasping this horrible truth,
you have shown yourself capable
of love
and meeting hatred head on.
The depth of our love
Is measured by its capacity
to suffer.
And we Christians
are born to suffer
because we are born to love.
And it isn't our personal injuries
that cause us to suffer
it is the injuries that others suffer
that we count as our own.
We mourn
with those who mourn.
And there is no grief
like that
of a bereaved mother.
[PAUSE]
For nine months,
mother and baby
are inseparable.
Within her grows
someone beautiful
of her own body
and of the father's.
When we gaze into the face
of a baby,
we see a beauty as yet
untouched by the world,
and this beauty
is a reflection
an ikon of God Himself.
To destroy this child
is an act against God Himself.
Conversely,
to love this child,
to protect her,
to nourish her,
to hold her close and keep her safe
is an act of love shown
to God Himself.
To remember the Holy Innocents
is to remember our own humanity,
our need,
not only to be loved,
but to love,
actively and fully.
In the Holy Innocents,
we recognise
not only the evil
that we can perpetrate,
but the ability to love
that has not been lost.
If ww can still feel love,
then we can still love
and there is some health in us.
We are not totally depraved.
And this means
that God thinks
we are worth saving,
worth the shame and spitting
and the Cross.
[PAUSE]
But what about joy?
Why is it the feast of the Holy Innocents?
Because they are not dead.
In Christ,
they are full of life,
full of humanity,
full of joy, peace and love.
And because
not only can no further evil touch them
but also that evil flees from them.
Love has conquered hate
and death is swallowed up
in Christ's victory
which they share.
They may have never spoken
a single word on the Earth
but they intercede
for us in Heaven nonetheless.
And they invite us
into their joy
which is hard won
but worth winning.
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