오늘의 복음

December 28, 2022Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

Margaret K 2022. 12. 28. 06:05

2022년 12월 28일 죄 없는 아기 순교자들 축일

오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp 

제1독서

<예수님의 피가 우리를 모든 죄에서 깨끗하게 해 줍니다.>

요한 1서. 1,5ㅡ2,2

사랑하는 여러분, 우리가 예수 그리스도에게서 5 듣고

이제 여러분에게 전하는 말씀은 이것입니다.

곧 하느님은 빛이시며 그분께는 어둠이 전혀 없다는 것입니다.

6 만일 우리가 하느님과 친교를 나눈다고 말하면서 어둠 속에서 살아간다면,

우리는 거짓말을 하는 것이고 진리를 실천하지 않는 것입니다.

7 그러나 그분께서 빛 속에 계신 것처럼 우리도 빛 속에서 살아가면,

우리는 서로 친교를 나누게 되고,

그분의 아드님이신 예수님의 피가

우리를 모든 죄에서 깨끗하게 해 줍니다.

8 만일 우리가 죄 없다고 말한다면,

우리는 자신을 속이는 것이고 우리 안에 진리가 없는 것입니다.

9 우리가 우리 죄를 고백하면,

그분은 성실하시고 의로우신 분이시므로

우리의 죄를 용서하시고 우리를 모든 불의에서 깨끗하게 해 주십니다.

10 만일 우리가 죄를 짓지 않았다고 말한다면,

우리는 그분을 거짓말쟁이로 만드는 것이고

우리 안에 그분의 말씀이 없는 것입니다.

2,1 나의 자녀 여러분, 내가 여러분에게 이 글을 쓰는 까닭은

여러분이 죄를 짓지 않게 하려는 것입니다.

그러나 누가 죄를 짓더라도 하느님 앞에서

우리를 변호해 주시는 분이 계십니다.

곧 의로우신 예수 그리스도이십니다.

2 그분은 우리 죄를 위한 속죄 제물이십니다.

우리 죄만이 아니라 온 세상의 죄를 위한 속죄 제물이십니다.

복음

<헤로데는 베들레헴에 사는 사내아이들을 모조리 죽여 버렸다.>

마태오. 2,13-18

13 박사들이 돌아간 뒤,

꿈에 주님의 천사가 요셉에게 나타나서 말하였다.

“일어나 아기와 그 어머니를 데리고 이집트로 피신하여,

내가 너에게 일러 줄 때까지 거기에 있어라.

헤로데가 아기를 찾아 없애 버리려고 한다.”

14 요셉은 일어나 밤에 아기와 그 어머니를 데리고 이집트로 가서,

15 헤로데가 죽을 때까지 거기에 있었다.

주님께서 예언자를 통하여,

“내가 내 아들을 이집트에서 불러내었다.”

하신 말씀이 이루어지려고 그리된 것이다.

16 그때에 헤로데는 박사들에게 속은 것을 알고 크게 화를 내었다.

그리고 사람들을 보내어, 박사들에게서 정확히 알아낸 시간을 기준으로,

베들레헴과 그 온 일대에 사는 두 살 이하의 사내아이들을 모조리 죽여 버렸다.

17 그리하여 예레미야 예언자를 통하여 하신 말씀이 이루어졌다.

18 “라마에서 소리가 들린다. 울음소리와 애끊는 통곡 소리.

라헬이 자식들을 잃고 운다. 자식들이 없으니 위로도 마다한다.”

December 28, 2022

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

Daily Readings — Audio

Daily Reflections — Video

http://www.usccb.org/bible/ 

Daily Mass : https://www.youtube.com/c/EWTNcatholictv

: https://www.youtube.com/c/DailyTVMass

Reading 1

1 Jn 1:5-2:2

Beloved:

This is the message that we have heard from Jesus Christ

and proclaim to you:

God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say, "We have fellowship with him,"

while we continue to walk in darkness,

we lie and do not act in truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,

then we have fellowship with one another,

and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

If we say, "We are without sin,"

we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just

and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.

If we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar,

and his word is not in us.

My children, I am writing this to you

so that you may not commit sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,

Jesus Christ the righteous one.

He is expiation for our sins,

and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.

 

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 124:2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8

R. (7) Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.

Had not the LORD been with us?

When men rose up against us,

then would they have swallowed us alive,

When their fury was inflamed against us.

R. Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.

Then would the waters have overwhelmed us;

The torrent would have swept over us;

over us then would have swept the raging waters.

R. Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.

Broken was the snare,

and we were freed.

Our help is in the name of the LORD,

who made heaven and earth.

R. Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.

 

Gospel

Mt 2:13-18

When the magi had departed, behold,

the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,

"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,

and stay there until I tell you.

Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."

Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night

and departed for Egypt.

He stayed there until the death of Herod,

that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,

Out of Egypt I called my son.

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,

he became furious.

He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity

two years old and under,

in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.

Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:

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

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

Deep in this season of love and joy we are confronted with an act of gruesome violence. Small boys under the age of two years – infants and toddlers – have become the enemies of the political power structure on southern Israel. The Magi from the east, seeking directions from their peers in this part of the world, the court of Herod and the Temple ask key questions about a new power, a power of Divine Presence – God with us – that has come at last to Israel as long foretold in the historical, wisdom and prophetic books of the Jews. The scraps of information point to Bethlehem, David’s City, as the location of the birth and the heavens announced that the coming had been in time less than two years. Not knowing which child was a danger to his hegemony, Herod killed all the boys born in the area over the last two years.

This chapter in Matthew’s Gospel is a familiar part of the Christmas lore that Christians have read year after year to give us a sense of what it was like for to God to enter the human community. But all too often we miss the point of each of the wisdom points buried in the accounts of Matthew and Luke. If the story were played out today (IF? The meaning of the Incarnation tells us the story is real again and again in human life) who are the Holy Innocents today? Those who Emmanuel has given participation in the mystery of salvation by reason of their death.

Who are the innocents today? St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the Spiritual Exercises asks us to ponder this question early in the second week of the Exercises. In the First week we discovered that it is sin and death that enslave and destroy all creation – the sin of refusing to honor God as God, seeking to be God on our own terms. Innocents lose their lives by the corruption of humans worshipping the false god of power and control; by those who grasp at or attempt to steal the absolute power of the One who creates out of no-thing.

Ignatius offers us an analogy to consider who and what the innocents of our day are – the meditation is one of his most famous and it invites us to consider two ways to be human under the banners of two opposing realities. Those who stand under the banner of hatred and death; of power and security; of possession and destruction are those who are not innocent. They choose lying and stealing, murder and mayhem, chaos, and violence over life itself. For such persons there is only the power of “control over” and they despise the “weakness of mercy and compassion.”

But submission to the limits of being human – even to death itself – means to stand under the banner of the God who so loved us that He sent his only begotten Son into our company to show us how to be authentically human. We are not secure in ourselves, our talents and our power or money, we are secure only in the hands and will of the One who Loves us more than we can possibly love ourselves.

Who are the innocents today? Those who stand under the banner of God’s mercy and do not grasp for what is not ours, equality with God. “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” Innocents today will care for creation – even at the cost of our personal wealth. Innocents today are those who see brothers and sisters in every voice and color of other humans. Innocents today protect the vulnerable from the harm of those who hate innocents and are afraid of powerlessness. Innocents speak the truth, live justly and simply. For this, innocents today will die, under some Herod somewhere to lives in terror of the power of love.

http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp

HERODS CAN BECOME “HOLY INNOCENTS”

“...Rachel bewailing her children; no comfort for her, since they are no more.” —Matthew 2:18

Why does the Lord permit evil? Why did He allow “the massacre of all the boys two years old and under in Bethlehem and its environs”? (Mt 2:16) One explanation is that He loves the Herods of the world very much and wants to save them all (see 1 Tm 2:4). The suffering of these innocents is the most powerful means in God’s plan of salvation for changing the most hardened Herod-hearts. We see this in the deaths of the martyrs and especially in the sufferings and death of Jesus, the most “holy Innocent” of all.

Why does the Lord permit the abortions of millions of “holy innocents”? One explanation is that He loves those who kill their children and even us who, by our sins, have shared in killing Him (see Rm 5:8). Abortions will be stopped when many of us (not only those directly involved in abortion) stop sinning, stop denying our sins, and start repenting (see 1 Jn 1:8-10). However, if we don’t accept the grace of repentance being poured out through His “holy innocents,” abortions will then stop only when we are stopped through death, judgment, and hell.

On this fourth day of Christmas, repent and allow the Lord to change the Herod in you into holy innocence.

Prayer: Father, in our contraceptive and abortifacient culture, may I choose life by choosing repentance.

Promise: “If we say, ‘We have never sinned,’ we make Him a liar and His word finds no place in us.” —1 Jn 1:10

Praise: The Holy Innocents became the first victims for Jesus Christ. They empower us for holiness and innocence.

http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/

Who can explain suffering, especially the suffering of innocent children? Herod's massacre of children who gave their lives for a person and a truth they did not know seemed so useless and unjust. What a scandal and stumbling block for those who can't recognize God's redeeming love. Why couldn't God prevent this slaughter? Suffering is indeed a mystery. No explanation seems to satisfy our human craving to understand.

First martyrs for Christ

These innocent children who died on Christ's behalf are the first martyrs for Christ. Suffering, persecution, and martyrdom are the lot of all who chose to follow Jesus Christ. There is no crown without the cross. It was through Jesus' suffering, humiliation, and death on a cross, that our salvation was won. His death won life - eternal life for us. And his blood which was shed for our sake obtained pardon and reconciliation with our heavenly Father.

Suffering can take many forms - illness, disease, handicap, physical pain and emotional trauma, slander, abuse, poverty, and injustice. Paul the Apostle states: We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called to his purpose (Romans 8:28)? Jesus exclaimed that those who weep, who are reviled and persecuted for righteousness sake are blessed (Matthew 5:10-12). The word blessed [makarios in the Greek] literally means happiness or beatitude. It describes a kind of joy which is serene and untouchable, self-contained and independent from chance and changing circumstances of life.

Supernatural joy in the face of suffering

There is a certain paradox for those blessed by the Lord. Mary was given the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God. That blessedness also would become a sword which pierced her heart as her Son died upon the cross. She received both a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow. But her joy was not diminished by her sorrow because it was fueled by her faith, hope, and trust in God and his promises. Jesus promised his disciples that "no one will take your joy from you" (John 16:22).

The Lord gives each of us a supernatural joy which enables us to bear any sorrow or pain and which neither life nor death can take way. Do you know the joy of a life fully given over to God with faith and trust?


Lord Jesus, you gave your life for my sake, to redeem me from slavery to sin and death. Help me to carry my cross with joy that I may willingly do your will and not shrink back out of fear or cowardice when trouble besets me.


Psalm 124

1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say-

2 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us,

3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;

4 then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;

5 then over us would have gone the raging waters.

6 Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth!

7 We have escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: The first martyrs of Christ, by Chromatius (died 406 AD)

"In Bethlehem therefore all the babies were slain. These innocents who died then on Christ's behalf became the first martyrs of Christ. David refers to them when he says, 'From the mouths of nursing babies you have perfected praise because of your enemies, that you might bring ruin to the enemy' (Psalm 8:2). ... For in this persecution even tiny infants and nursing babies were killed on Christ's behalf and attained to the consummate praise of martyrs. Meanwhile the wicked king Herod was destroyed, he who had usurped the realm to defend himself against the king of the heavens. Thus it is that those blessed babes have deservedly lasted beyond others. They were the first who were worthy to die on Christ's behalf."(excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 6.2) [Note: Chromatius was an early Christian scholar and bishop of Aquileia, Italy. He was a close friend of John Chrysostom and Jerome. He died in 406 AD. Jerome describead him as a "most learned and most holy man."]