Thursday December 28, 2017
Why are we presented with readings filled with death and martyrdom in the days following Christmas? The very day after Christmas, we met Stephen’s martyrdom. The empty cave confronted us yesterday. Today we face the murder of the holy innocents. Isn’t this the season to celebrate birth and life?
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. But his birth loses its meaning without the death for which he was born. The stable at Bethlehem cannot be separated from the tomb which will eventually turn empty. Over the Babe of Peace hangs the shadow of the Cross. In his poem Journey of the Magi, T. S. Eliot beautifully captures the intermingling of death and birth in Bethlehem:
… were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
To be born in him, we must die with him.
