Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs
Today the Church recognizes the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Whenever I think of the babies who were killed by order of Herod at that time, I always think about ‘Limbo’. Growing up, we studied the Baltimore Catechism and were expected to memorize the questions and answers word for word. One of the questions was “where will persons go who—such as infants—have not committed actual sin and, through no fault of theirs, die without baptism? (BC # 3 Q. 632) Paraphrasing the answer to this question, ‘persons who die without having been baptized could not enter heaven, but rather went to some place similar to Limbo where they experienced no suffering but could not experience the happiness of heaven’. This answer never made sense to me; I could not imagine why God would not welcome innocent infants immediately into the fullness of heaven. It was many years later that I realized that this particular explanation, even though part of our catechism at the time, was not official Church doctrine. The God of mercy and love I have come to know could never be limited to this.
Today’s Gospel passage from St. Luke is the only place where we read of the Flight into Egypt. Joseph takes Mary and the newborn Jesus quickly fleeing from the land of his birth. Who can imagine the fear and urgency they experienced? In our society, who among us can even imagine having to flee for their lives with no place to go, uncertain where the next meal was coming from, and unable to even speak the language of the place we landed? Now that sounds like being in limbo! In addition to the horrors left behind, how would it feel being unwelcome, looked down upon, isolated, and mistrusted in the foreign place one has landed?
In these sacred days following Christmas, it seems as if those among us on this earth, fleeing for their lives and the lives of their children, are the ones who are in ‘Limbo’. And though they seem far away, they are nonetheless our brothers and sisters and they are ‘among us’. We are faced with the opportunity to choose how we will act. Will that choice proceed out of a fear that closes and diminishes our hearts? Or will we make the choice we hope our neighbors would make on our behalf—the choice in favor of the Love which opens and expands our human hearts?
I pray this day, by the love and mercy of our Father God, that we reject the voices of fear and turn towards the voice of the Christ Child who beckons us to follow the voice of Love.
--Gail Lyman