A reading from the first letter of saint John (1:5-2:2)
This is the declaration we have heard from him
and are declaring to you:
God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him
while we are living in darkness,
we are lying, because we are not living the truth.
But if we live in light,
as he is in light,
we have fellowship with one another
and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
cleanses us from all sin.
If we say, ‘We have no sin,’
we are deceiving ourselves,
and truth is not in us.
If we acknowledge our sins,
he is trustworthy and righteous
so that he will forgive our sins
and will cleanse us from all evil.
If we say, ‘We have never sinned,’
we make him a liar,
and his Word is not in us.
My children, I am writing this so that you do not sin;
but if anyone does sin,
we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous.
He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins,
and not only ours,
but also those of the whole world.
The prologue of the gospel has already spoken of the Word as ‘the true light’ (John1:5). The first letter goes further and declares that ‘God is light’ (phos), and with him there is no ‘darkness’ (skotia). Believers can still live in darkness, but by acknowledging sin forgiveness is made possible from the one who is ‘trustworthy’ (pistos) and ‘just’ (dikaios). John addresses his readers for the first time as ‘children’ (teknia), and explains that Jesus Christ, who is described as our defender or ‘advocate’ (parakletos), is a ‘sacrifice of expiation’ (hilasmos) for our sins and for those of the whole world. As stated earlier in the passage, ‘the blood of Jesus cleanses us’ from sin.
Psalm 124 (123) The image of the bird escaping from the ‘snare of the fowler’ recalls the freedom brought to Christians through the incarnation.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew (2:13-18)
After the wise men had left, see, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up. Take the child and his mother, flee into Egypt and stay there until I tell you, for Herod intends to search for the child to destroy him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother by night, left for Egypt and stayed there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
I called my son out of Egypt.
Then Herod, seeing that he had been fooled by the wise men, was furious, and sent and killed in Bethlehem and its surrounding district all the male children who were two years old or less, according to the time he had been careful to ask the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamenting and much weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be comforted
because they are no more.
Two scenes from Matthew’s infancy narrative provide the story of the flight into Egypt and the massacre of the male children of Bethlehem. Joseph is again the focus of attention and in a second dream is told to take ‘the child and his mother’ to Egypt. Joseph is once again willing to respond even ‘by night’ to the Lord’s command. Matthew uses Hosea 11 as a fulfilment citation to conclude this section of the story. The massacre commanded by king Herod would be in keeping with what is known of the historical Herod, king of the Jews, but Matthew may well be drawing a parallel between the situation of the child Jesus and of the child Moses who escapes the slaughter ordered by the Pharaoh in Exodus 1. Matthew uses Jeremiah 31, ‘Rachel weeping for her children’, to evoke the grief of mothers, and once more to demonstrate that, in the events of the Messiah, Scripture is fulfilled.
Why does Jesus share the experience of his people?
Pray for all victims of massacres, especially the old and the very young.