Take the time to remember

On the fourth day after Christmas, through remembering the Holy Innocents (Matthew 2:13-18), the Church reminds us that though some may not even know or be aware of Christ, God still loves us.  While Stephen is remembered as the first martyr for the new Church, I think it’s worth noting that these very young boys didn’t even know Christ was among them, as St. Stephen did.  But God found them worthy enough to be sacrificed for His Church to come into existence and He rewarded them by bringing them Home.

“The only thing God can’t do is change the past.  The only thing man can do is change the future.”  I heard this years ago.  What it means is that we can learn lessons from the past, but we can’t change it; no one can.  What we can do is strive to look harder for our Lord in our daily lives and let Him be our GPS to Heaven.

Today, let us take some time to remember the innocent who still suffer.  We can take time to remember those whose lives seem to be devalued by today’s society; the unborn, who are the most innocent of all and slaughtered because they are ‘inconvenient’; the immigrant, who is only looking for a better, safer environment but restricted by partisan politics from do so ‘legally’; the poor, who we generally look upon with distrust and scorn, as though they are poor by ‘choice’.  We can take time to be thankful that Jesus was spared, for things would be very different had He been killed in Herod’s rage of envy and fear.  And, we can take time to remember and to pray for peace, and dignity for all mankind.