Homily for December 28, 2019

King Herod was so obsessed with his power and any threat to it (real or perceived), that he was prepared to lash out at even innocent children. Throughout the history of world politics, there are many such characters, rulers prepared to sacrifice any number of people to ensure that they stayed in power. It still happens today.

This kind of kingship that Herod espoused was in total contradiction to the kind of kingship that Jesus proclaimed: the kingship of God. His was a kingship that finds expression, not in oppression, but in the humble service of others.

The infant Jesus, who escaped from Herod’s cruelty, went on, as an adult, to say to His disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant.”

None of us will ever act like Herod, but we cannot afford to be satisfied with the ways in which we deal with others in our lives; there is something in human nature that can make us prone to seek to dominate others. The first reading today says that, “if we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth.” We have to be alert to the ways we can fail to take that path of humble, self-emptying, service of others which is the way of Jesus. +