Let Us Not Make Rachel Cry and Mourn in Her Grave as We Turn to Christ – the Feast of the Holy Innocent during Christmas Octave

While we are celebrating the mystery of the incarnation of the Theos-Logos (God-Word)(John 1:1, 14), coming out of Mary’s womb, as baby Jesus, we also have two bloody memorials for martyrs, who willingly died for Christ, St. Stephan (December 26), and who were killed because of Jesus, whom the Magi called the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2) (December 28), during Christmas Octave.

Though we regard St. Stephen (Acts 6:1-8:1a) as the proto-martyr, historically, the proto-martyrs are the children massacred by Herod the Great, in his rage of being fooled by the Magi, who were to tell him where the newborn King of the Jew was (Matthew 2:1-18). Nevertheless, St. Stephen is the first martyred apostle of Christ in the Church.

What led to the martyrdom of Stephen is how our sins, as represented with sin of the religious authorities, which also killed Jesus, rejecting Christ and his teaching. Stephen was put to death because his teaching of Christ and his teaching in the Gospel, infuriated the religious authorities, who continued to reject Christ and his teaching. And what killed these innocent children of age 2 and under in Bethlehem and its vicinity is sin of Herod the Great, who felt threatened of his power by the prospect of a rival king of the Jews, as he was recognized by Caesar to be king of the Jews.

These innocent children had to shed their blood to death because of Jesus the incarnated Christ, God the Word, who was regarded as the King of the Jews by the Magi. And nearly 33 years later, Jesus himself was killed under the charge: the King of the Jews (Matthew 27:11, 27; Mark 15:1, 12, 18, 26, 31-32; Luke 23:2-3; John 18:33-37;19:2-3,14,19-22), a threat to Caesar (John 11:45-52; 19:12,15). Furthermore, the religious authorities, who wanted to kill Jesus by conspiring the Roman authority, because of their envy (Matthew 27:18), also killed Stephen, who eloquently spoke of Christ and his Gospel with unparalleled wisdom (Acts 6:5, 8-10; 7:1-60). And the way Stephen by them was killed resembled the way Jesus was killed by them, as false accusation is behind both of these deaths (Acts 6:11-14 cf.  Matthew 26:59-68; Mark 14:55-65; Luke 23:2, 13-25).

We honor and commemorate the St. Stephan’s life of steadfast faith, as he was filled with the Holy Spirit, on the day after the Nativity of the Lord. Then, two days later, still in Christmas Octave, we memorialize these children killed by Herod the Great in place of little Jesus, whom the Magi regarded as the newborn King of Israel. Stephen was killed because he spoke like Christ as him and his teaching. So, he became subject to false accusation, just as Christ was subjected to it, too. Being truly Christ-like, Stephen did not hold nothing against those who killed him and killed Christ (Acts 7:60), as Jesus forgave those who killed him (Luke 23:34). The children of age 2 and under in Bethlehem and its vicinity were massacred because Herod wanted to find and kill Jesus but could not find him, as the Magi did not tell where they met Jesus. Though Herod could not find and kill Jesus, these children were killed as “collateral damages” by Herod’s sinful fear of the King of the Jews (as he was king of the Jews under Caesar’s authority, while Jesus is the King, not only of the Jews but of all, by God’s authority).

Both of these martyrs, whose lives are honored during Christmas Octave, St. Stephen and the Holy Innocent, were killed because of human sin, as it also killed Jesus, the incarnated Christ.

For the Feast of the Holy Innocent, the martyrs, on December 28, the Gospel Reading (Matthew 2:13-18) comes with a heavy tone of mourning for the great loss of unknown multitudes of innocent lives due to one man’s sin, in reaction to the incarnated Christ the King, even before he began his public ministry at age 30. This bloody tragedy happened when Jesus was no older than age 2.

Though the real target of Herod’s killing rage was Jesus himself, it was not time for him to die. Therefore, God the Father, through angel, told Joseph to take Jesus and his mother, Mary, altogether, to Egypt for Jesus’ safety, as if to reverse Exodus. In Exodus, the Israelites escaped from Egypt as delivered by God. But, in response to Herod the Great’s threat, the Holy Family escaped to Egypt – until God the Father calls His Son out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15), for which Matthew cites Hosea 11:1, which recalls God calling Pharaoh to let His firstborn son, Israel, go free out of Egypt (Exodus 4:22-23). And, Jesus is, indeed, God’s real firstborn Son (Luke 2:7), as presented by Mary and Joseph in the Temple (Luke 2:22-24) in accordance with Exodus 13:11-15, along with Leviticus 12:1-8. Thus, Jesus, within his Holy Family, stayed in Egypt until God called to return to Nazareth upon the death of Herod the Great so that he can grow strong to begin his public ministry – and to die and resurrect, as the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18) to redeem and save us.

Jesus, the Savior, was saved from the evil murderous snare of Herod, it cost so many lives of innocent children of and near his age at that time. Imagine what it was like to see their children slaughtered in Herod’s madness rage to find and kill little Jesus boy, who was regarded as the King of the Jews by the Magi, as their parents. So, to poetically reflect their mourning over loss of children, Matthew quotes Jeremiah 31:15 in Matthew 2:18:

A voice was heard in Ramah,

sobbing and loud lamentation;

Rachel weeping for her children,

and she would not be consoled,

since they were no more.

 In his book of prophecy, Jeremiah considered the mourning of the loss of Jerusalem to the Babylonian seize analogous to the intense morning of Rachel, who grieved just as her husband, Jacob did, to an extent to refuse to be comforted, when Jacob was told Joseph, who is Rachel’s first son with Jacob (Genesis 30:22-24), was killed (Genesis 37:34-35), though Rachel was dead at that time (Genesis 35:16-20) and Joseph was not killed but actually sold as a slave to Pharaoh’s official (Genesis 37:36; cf. Genesis 37:12-33).

 Rachel was Jacob’s favorite wife (Genesis 29:16-30) but struggled with her infertility and even felt jealous of her sister, Leah, another wife of Jacob, who had more children with him (Genesis 30:1). As she was on her way to Ephrath, where Bethlehem is, she had labor and began to give birth to Benjamin, her second son with Jacob and the youngest son of Jacob, fulfilling her wish for another son upon Joseph (Genesis 30:24), with great difficulty and died upon giving birth to Benjamin (Genesis 35:16-20).

 Jeremiah may also refer Rachel’s lost children, for whom she mourns, actually to her grandchildren, sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh(Genesis 48:1-2; cf Genesis 30:22-24). They became powerful tribes among the northern ten tribes of Israel but became lost upon Assyrian seize of the Kingdom of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) in 722-721 BC. So, from her grave, Rachel mourns over the loss of these two tribes of Israel upon having them wiped out by the Assyrians. After more than 140 years from the loss of these Rachel’s grandchildren tribes of Israel, Jeremiah witnesses great loss of Jerusalem upon the Babylonians seize in 587-58 BC. Many in Jerusalem were killed and those who survived were taken to Babylon, and Jeremiah saw them, being chained to be taken by Babylonians in Ramah, near Jerusalem (Jeremiah 40:1-6). Seeing sad people of Jerusalem taken to Babylon, leaving Jerusalem, which was reduced to rubbles, Jeremiah mourned a great loss not only over Jerusalem but its people, being killed and taken in exile to Babylon. And, he juxtaposed it to Rachel’s mourning from her grave.  Then, Matthew cited this line from Jeremiah to tell us what the mourning of the parents who lost their little children to the murderous rage of Herod the Great, because little Jesus boy was thought to be the King of the Jews, a threat to Herod.

Remember, what made Rachel cry and mourn in her grave, over the loss of her children, as Jeremiah poetically put in Jeremiah 31:15 and cited by Matthew to analogously express the mourning of great loss of the Holy Innocent in Matthew 2:18, is sin – sin of Israel, the northern ten tribes, resulting in the loss of the Kingdom of Israel (the Northern Kingdom). And, the loss of Jerusalem, which Jeremiah mourned in citing the mourning of Rachel from her grave, is also due to sin – sin of Judah, who did not learn a lesson well from Israel, their northern brothers. And, what resulted in the mourning over the loss of the Holy Innocent is also sin – sin of Herod the Great.

After the massacre of the Holy Innocent, sin further killed Christ and Stephen and many more. And, those who have been killed because of Christ and for Christ, giving their powerful testimony to their witness (encounter) of Christ, starting with St. Stephen, are literally martyrs.

 Because sin brings mourning after mourning over loss after loss, on the feast of the Holy Innocent, the First Reading (1 John 1:5–2:2) reminds us of our need of Christ so that sin cannot overcome us – so that we do not keep Rachel crying and mourning from her grave. Christ was incarnated in the human flesh upon being conceived in Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of her so that his blood can cleanse us – to deliver us from the snare of Satan and to atone us with God.

Though Rachel died on her way to Ephrath, where Bethlehem is, upon giving birth to her youngest son, Benjamin, with difficulties (Genesis 35:16-20), Mary, who was also on her way to Bethlehem, gave birth to the incarnated Christ (Luke 2:1-7), and did not die as she was protected by God’s overshadowing power (Luke 1:35), though the condition of the place to give birth was rather horrible. And, the birth of the incarnated Christ of Mary was prophesized by Micah:

But you, Bethlehem-Ephrath least among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from old, from ancient times.

Therefore the Lord will give them up until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, then the rest of his kindred shall return to the children of Israel.

He shall take his place as shepherd by the strength of the Lord, by the majestic name of the Lord, his God; and they shall dwell securely, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth: he shall be peace  (Micah 5:1-3).

But, isn’t it an irony that the religious leaders, who later killed the incarnated Christ and Stephen, was consulted by Herod the Great, cited Micah 5:1, to tell the newborn King of the Jews is to be born in Bethlehem?, helping this evil puppet king of the Jews’ intent to kill baby Jesus, resulting in the slaughter of the Holy Innocent?

Let us turn to Christ, the Son born of Mary in Bethlehem, toward which Rachel gave her last birth and died, so that Rachel will not represent mourning mothers any more.