The Suffering of Innocents Needs to End

Each year on the Sunday following Christmas, the Orthodox Church commemorates the killing by King Herod of the innocent children while he searched for the new-born Christ. It is a pain we know too well lately with the recent tragedy in Sandy Hook Elementary School. But it is also a pain most Americans choose to ignore as millions of unborn infants are aborted each year.

 

The Gospel tells, “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.” (Matthew 2.18) And yet today, there is little or no wailing for the innocents that continue to suffer in our society at the hands of others. While many are in fact killed, others go without proper food and clothing, others go without a roof over their heads, and still others go without proper medication for illnesses otherwise easily cured.

 

As we celebrate the health and good fortune of our families this year during Christmas and look forward to the coming year, I pray we can commit to work toward the end of such innocent suffering in our society. It begins when our hearts are burning with pain for these suffering children. It will continue when our pain causes us to act for the good of the innocent children of our society.

 

There was no comfort for the mothers when thousands of innocent children were killed in search of Christ. We must not allow any more innocent children to suffer just because we are no longer in search of Christ to transform our hearts. Together we can dedicate the coming New Year as the year to inviting Christ to burn in our hearts and cause us to act to save the innocents. Their suffering will only end when our hearts burn.