Any story in the history of salvation is timeless, no matter how long ago it occurred. We can find ourselves, our world in Genesis onward because human nature is what it is and doesn’t change.

But this day, this remembrance of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents, illustrates the timelessness of the journey, with all of its promise, abject failure, acquiesence to evil and faith in God’s power to bring good out of any evil.

Because, of course, the Innocents still suffer. The powerful still exploit, silence and kill the innocents.

It is the story of sinful humanity, this day, the story of our failure, in every age, across time and cultures. See, the gift of a child, the gift of a child deliberately fashioned in love by God says,, see – here is innocence, beauty, the chance to love sacrificially and joyfully, the chance to see and treasure hope and delight dancing across unique little faces, each fashioned by God,. Can you do it?

How will you respond to this gift, this helplessness, these arms, these eyes, this new presence? Will you accept this little one in joy?

The answer, across cultures, is invariably – no. At some level, there is always no. Victimized, killed in the womb, exposed, abused, exploited, enslaved, directly and indirectly made casualties of war. From the ancients to the present, by order of governments, by the drive of a greedy, lustful culture, by the will of our own twisted hearts, the innocents suffer.

So today we pray for the innocents – all of them, near and far, past and present. Pray, too, for those who work to alleviate their suffering. It is hard, painful work – those who are working with the impoverished, malnourished and abandoned around the world, those who are stepping in to attempt to drain the sewer of child pornography and internet predation, those who work with abused children, foster parents who open their homes to confused, suffering, aban, medical professionals who give of themselves so that one child might suffer a little less tonight

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From the Pope’s homily at Midnight Mass:

God’s sign is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him. The Fathers of the Church, in their Greek translation of the Old Testament, found a passage from the prophet Isaiah that Paul also quotes in order to show how God’s new ways had already been foretold in the Old Testament. There we read: “God made his Word short, he abbreviated it” (Is 10:23; Rom 9:28). The Fathers interpreted this in two ways. The Son himself is the Word, the Logos; the eternal Word became small – small enough to fit into a manger. He became a child, so that the Word could be grasped by us.

In this way God teaches us to love the little ones. In this way he teaches us to love the weak. In this way he teaches us respect for children. The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. Towards children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world; towards children who have to beg; towards children who suffer deprivation and hunger; towards children who are unloved. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us. Let us pray this night that the brightness of God’s love may enfold all these children. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind needs so much more than the material necessities of life.