Pope Francis reminds the Bishops of the world…

… Christmas is also accompanied, whether we like it or not, by tears.

… Matthew presents it in the bluntest of terms: “A voice is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children” (2:18). It is the sobbing of mothers bewailing the death of their children in the face of Herod’s tyranny and unbridled thirst for power.

… Today too, (on this feast of the Holy Innocents) we hear this heart-rending cry of pain, which we neither desire nor are able to ignore or to silence – I write this with a heavy heart – we continue to hear the lamentation of so many mothers, of so many families, for the death of their children, their innocent children.

…To contemplate the manger also means to contemplate this cry of pain, to open our eyes and ears to what is going on around us, and to let our hearts be attentive and open to the pain of our neighbors, especially where children are involved. It also means realizing that that sad chapter in history is still being written today.

…Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development.

…Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.

… Can we truly experience Christian joy if we turn our backs on these realities? Can Christian joy even exist if we ignore the cry of our brothers and sisters, the cry of the children?

…Because he was able to hear God’s voice and was docile to his will, Joseph became more conscious of what was going on around him and was able to interpret these events realistically.

… Today, with Saint Joseph as our model … we need the courage to respond to this reality, to arise and take it firmly in hand (cf. Mt 2:20).

We are asked to protect this joy from the Herods of our own time. Like Joseph… we need courage to guard this joy from the new Herods of our time, who devour the innocence of our children.

An innocence robbed from them by the oppression of illegal slave labor, prostitution, and exploitation. An innocence shattered by wars and forced immigration, with the great loss that this entails. Thousands of our children have fallen into the hands of gangs, criminal organizations, and merchants of death, who only devour and exploit their neediness.

… We live in a world where almost half of the children who die under the age of five do so because of malnutrition… 150 million child laborers, many of whom live in conditions of slavery. (UNICEF estimates that) in 2030 there will be 167 million children living in extreme poverty, 69 million children under the age of five will die between … and 16 million children will not receive basic schooling.

The Church, our Mother, weeps not only for the pain caused to her youngest sons and daughters but also because she recognizes the sins of some of her members: the sufferings, the experiences, and the pain of minors who were abused sexually by priests.

Christmas is a time that challenges us to protect life, to help it be born and grow.

May we do this with the paternal fidelity of Saint Joseph and guided by Mary, Mother of tender love, so that our own hearts may never grow hard.

Click below for an audio version of this Vincentian Mindwalk