Herod sent and killed all the children
around Bethlehem who were two years old or under.
Then what Jeremiah had spoken was fulfilled:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
—Matthew 2.16-18
Cruelty reigns.
Herod’s power seems absolute;
the world is his—or so he thinks.
But the world is not his.
The Beloved has come, incarnate,
to occupy this empire of domination.
Christ of the cross has come in love
to claim this world for those who suffer.
This is Rachel’s world.
This world belongs to the mothers of Gaza,
to refugee mothers, to mothers
of the deported and incarcerated and addicted.
They cry out.
We do not hear the word of God
unless we hear the cry of Rachel.
As earnestly as to the choirs of angels,
we pause to listen.
God hears you.
The universe resounds with your cry.
Rachel, we hear you.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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