Reflection on the Slaughter of the Innocents

Today we remember the Slaughter of the Innocents which commemorates the incident in Matthew Chapter 2 where Herod the Great was so threatened by the one who was born to be “King of the Jews” born in Bethlehem that he ordered the death of all the male children of Bethlehem under two years of age. The Medieval Coventry Carol tells this story :

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Lullay, thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we do sing

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight,

All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Most scholars do not doubt that Herod would have killed children- he is on record for killing 2 brother in-laws, one wife and two of his own children, but there is no historical record of a mass killing in Bethlehem having taken place. Since Bethlehem was small the number if killed would have beeen small, some estimates no more than 20. But again, as in most of scripture ,the literal is the least important of the interpretations; it is a story in which the truth does not lie in the facts but in its mythic power to capture the deeper truth – we treat life with contempt if it gets in the way with our own agendas.

If we have any doubt about the "truth" of the story then we have not been following the news. How many more times will we just say "Ain't it awful." and then allow the death merchants to spin that "guns don't kill people" and that "Gee whiz we really need more automatic weapons with bigger magazines, so our children will be safe in school, or in the movie theatre, or in the mall, or on the playground; because the only way to stop a "monster" with a gun is with a good man with a bigger gun!" The Right Honorable Governor of Virginia and the Esteemed Wayne LaPierre, who are the record as being "fine Christian gentlemen", were trotted out by their pay masters to both bloviate on the subject and say things like this with a straight face-- so much practice!

Until we are finally able to to gather the collective political will and courage to put an end to this madness of the worship of weapons of mass destruction which can promote our own agendaswe better keep practicing the Coventry Carol:

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.