The Nativity of Jesus brought great danger

Even in the time of joy of Advent, with the anticipation of the birth of Jesus Christ, and the wonder and glory of the actual Nativity, one must keep a very important grim reality in mind, if one is to truly understand God, the gift of Jesus Christ, and humans’ own behavior.

The best way to do this is to recall the following while celebrating Christmas. While the faithful celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ over at least a long weekend, most likely a week, and of course many celebrate throughout the month or more, the actual Infant Jesus and the Holy Family, Joseph and Mary, barely had a day to celebrate his birth. One might assume that I mean the temporary lodging in the stable and the poverty of the Lord’s birth, but no that is not what I mean.

Matthew 2:1-3, 7-8, 11-13, 16
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, Magi came from the East to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” But when King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and so was all Jerusalem [comment: meaning the powerful in his court and among the priests] with him.

Then Herod summoned the Magi secretly, and carefully ascertained from them the time when the star had appeared to them. And sending them to Bethlehem, he said, “Go and make careful inquiry concerning the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and worship him.”

And entering the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they worshipped him… And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their country by another way. But when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying, “Arise, and take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell thee. For Herod will seek the child to destroy him.”

Then Herod, seeing that he had been tricked by the Magi, was exceedingly angry; and he sent and slew all the boys in Bethlehem and all its neighborhood who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had carefully ascertained from the Magi.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken through Jeremiahs the prophet, A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are no more.

Yes, within mere days of the birth of Jesus, angels warned both the Magi, who had innocently given Herod the news of the Savior’s birth, and Joseph to flee for Herod planned to kill Jesus. So much faster than we have our tree, our gifts, and our dinner, the Holy Family had to run to save the life of the newborn Jesus.

What is worse, Herod had no way of knowing that the angels had warned the Magi and Joseph, so when he got no further information from the Magi, he decided to have killed every innocent baby who MIGHT be Jesus. Thus he had all infant boys under the age of two in two villages cruelly slain by sword. Imagine the innocent families who had no knowledge of anything having soldiers storm into their village, declaring war on their baby boys and spitting them on swords right in front of the mothers.

Because Herod had no way of knowing that the Holy Family had been warned by angels and fled, he did not pursue them, thinking they were still in the region. Thus those baby infants were the first martyrs of the Church, and are honored three days after the Nativity of Jesus Christ, on December 28. Herod in his deep and dark evil killed every little baby boy who “might” have been Jesus, and thus never thought to mount a pursuit of the Holy Family (since he knew not who they were but yes, think about it, his agents could have found out). But he thought he “took care of the problem” by slaughtering every little baby boy in those two villages under the age of two.

Imagine being Joseph and Mary. Many focus on the Holy Family being away from their home when Jesus was born, and being poor having to be in the stable. But mere days after the birth of Jesus they were fleeing the soldiers of King Herod who came with slaughtering swords, so at Christmas one must also remember the dire peril they were in, and the sacrifice of the innocent babies, who distracted Herod and thus saved Jesus from pursuit.

One cannot really understand the gift of Jesus from God without understanding this slaughter at the mere rumor of his arrival. This is something older children, and most certainly adults, must understand and remember in order to truly appreciate the risk and the grace of the gift of the Infant Jesus to a world ensnared by the most wicked of sin.

From Christian Prayer, the Liturgy of the Holy Hours:

December 28
Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Come let us worship the newborn Christ who crowns with joy these children who died for him.

Clothed in white robes, they will walk with me, says the Lord, for they are worthy.

These children cry out their praises to the Lord; by their death they have proclaimed what they could not preach with their infant voices.

From the mouths of children and babies at the breast you have found praise to foil your enemies.

The just are the friends of God.
They live with him forever.
-The just are the friends of God.
They live with him forever.
God himself is their reward.
-They live with him for ever.
Glory to the Father…
-The just are…

At the king’s command these innocent babies and little children were put to death; they died for Christ, and now in the glory of heaven as they follow him, the sinless Lamb, they sing for ever. Glory to you O Lord.

…The Holy Innocents gave witness not by words but by their life’s blood,
-give us strength to be your witnesses before men, both by words and by actions.

They were not ready for battle but you made them fit to win the palm of victory,
-now that we are prepared for victory, do not let us despair.

…You rewarded the child martyrs with the first share in your kingdom,
-do not let us be cast out from the unending heavenly banquet.

You knew persecution and exile as a child,
-protect all children whose lives are in danger from famine, war and disasters.
Our Father…

You see, Catholics do not worship the infant martyrs, but they remember them, 2000 years after they, through no choice of their own, were slaughtered as the first martyrs. We also allow ourselves to imagine their joy and reward from God, as they would have been the "first" into heaven to learn of the arrival of the Messiah and their role.

Understanding the Holy Innocents, Martyrs helps you to understand the Catholic attitude toward saints. They honor and revere with great solemnity the reality that the Infant Jesus had to flee with his family mere days after birth to save his life, a life that was put at risk by naive Wise Men with enthusiastic and worshipful big mouths. Honoring these little baby saints reminds us all that martyrdom at the hands of evil humans accompanies the arrival of good. This is one reason the Catholic Church often references the blood of martyrs, not because they are gory or wishing for such a fate, which is so obviously unjust. The newborn Jesus' life was preserved as innocents were slaughtered by their own people sent by their own King and his evil insecurity.

December 28 is a very important day to me, it always has been, for this reason, to honor the Holy Innocents and their grieving families, and to explain to people to recall that the gift by God of Jesus to humanity was not just someone who “understood poverty,” but whose very life was at risk at the hands of the very people he came to save. This, incidentally, is why fictionalized ex-Bible accounts of the boy Jesus performing miracles is not true; after the slaughter of the Holy Innocents it is not as though the Holy Family exactly proclaimed any miracle working of Jesus and thus might draw down not only on themselves but others another slaughter such as had taken place days after his birth.

Many wish that the spirituality of Christmas could be enhanced. Well, a first step is learning the facts that Jesus had less time in the manger than the average family has a long weekend of Christmas celebration, before he had to flee, and the Holy Innocents became the first martyrs even before one word was preached, and John the Baptist would have been only six months old himself.

I hope that you have found this helpful.

Understanding Islam and Christianity, example

Here is an interesting article:

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=208625&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

snip

MUSLIMS celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in Qatar have come under fire as several Doha-based Muslim scholars yesterday criticised the practice as an “un-Islamic habit” imported from Christians. Sheikh Raad al-Hussein, who was giving the Friday sermon at Hussein Bin Kamal Mosque at al-Hilal, criticised the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday as bida’a (an innovation in the religion) saying that none of the Muslims who accompanied the Prophet during his life ever celebrated his birthday. “It has not been proved that any of the earlier Muslims commemorated the occasion. Even the exact day of birth of the Prophet is not known with certainty. Some contemporary researchers have confirmed that he died on the 9th of Rabee’ al-Awal rather than the 12th as is commonly believed. Arabs were not known for using calendars or writing history during that time,” al-Hussein said.Al-Hussein said that the celebration was always full of undesired and wicked things which oppose the basis of the religion of Islam. “There are many sins committed in the name of that day like free mixing of men and women in one area and many other objectionable acts,” he said. The scholar warned Muslims against what he called “over praising the Prophet Muhammad” saying that Christians have started praising Jesus excessively and ended up as “worshiping him as a son of God”. “Muslims have been warned by the Prophet himself not to exalt him as the Christians did with Jesus and worshipped him instead of Allah. This celebration has no basis in the holy Qur’an or the tradition. The Prophet has never performed it or informed his nation to do so,” he said. He blamed the then-Christian peoples of Egypt and Syria for “exporting their habit of celebrating Jesus Christ’s birthday” to the Muslims in the region.

***
I have no comment about the propriety of either celebrating the Prophet (PBUH) birthday as some do, or not as this scholar criticizes.

However, this is a great opportunity to educate and correct an error. Christians need to better understand their own faith, and Muslims should not believe what is not true about Christians.

First of all, Christians are not celebrating the birthday of Jesus as an ordinary birthday event. Muslims need to understand that the first faith of our shared forefather Abraham, which is the faith of the Jews, predicted at God's word the arrival of the Messiah. The Messiah is predicted throughout what Christians call the Old Testament by both the Prophets and by King David. Therefore the birthday of Jesus is celebrated because it is the arrival of the Messiah. The Qur'an devotes considerable attention to the occasion of the birth of Jesus. So it is an error to think that the celebration of Jesus' birthday on the designated date of Christmas, or as we call it the Nativity, is a "birthday event." It is celebration of the day that Christians believe, and the Qur'an confirms, that the Jewish Savior and Messiah arrived on earth.

In the same Bible passages that predict the Messiah, it is predicted that he will be referred to as the "son" of God, who will treat him as a Son. I don't want to get into the entire "excess of worship of Jesus" argument because that is beyond the scope of what I want to clarify here. The point I want to make for the education of Christians and Muslims alike is that your discussion about the celebration of the Prophet's (PBUH) birthday, or not, does not have an intellectual scholarly parallel with the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus. Jesus' birthday is not a cultural event but the day where it is remembered that the promised Messiah arrived. That is different than a birthday. If Jesus had arrived on a cloud rather than through human birth from the Virgin Mary, Christians would celebrate the Messiah arriving on the cloud day.

I hope this helps and best wishes to all who dialogue in good faith.