Today we celebrate the Feast of Holy Innocents, who were murdered by Herod. Furious that the magi did not cooperate with his plan to "worship" the child Jesus, he ordered that all little children two years and under be slaughtered, in hopes that among them would be Jesus. God had other plans and spoke to Joseph in a dream after the magi left: "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" (Matthew 2: 13-18).
Joseph did not question God. He simply obeyed, got up in the middle of the night and left Bethlehem for Egypt! As with Joseph, God also is intimately involved in our lives, directing us to do certain things to protect us from evil, though we may not be away of danger that is about to come upon us. God watches out for us, as He watched out for His only begotten Son. As children of God, the Lord cares about the dangers we may be entering and redirects us through the Spirit of God speaking within us. Those hunches we follow have a divine origin. Are we listening, as Joseph did? Do we live our lives as children of God? Do we realize that God watches out for us, day in and day out? He cares! He bothers. He takes us by the right hand and walks beside us through the valley of darkness. He is, in fact, our light in the darkness, as He was for Mary and Joseph!
Let us pray for this awareness!
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