December 28th is the 3rd day of Christmas, traditionally the date in the churches of the West for Holy Innocents' Day remembering the massacre of the children of Bethlehem as Herod sought the infant Jesus. It's the story of a flight in the night away from persecution, the slaughter of children, and the first years of the Holy Family's life as political refugees.
We love to add cute details to the story of Jesus' birth - a stable full of furry animals, stories of the magi's long journey, a grumpy shepherd's conversion. We try to make the story of Jesus' birth normal, safe, and comfortable. It wasn't. And the Gospel writers, in both accounts, go out of their way to show Jesus as an outsider, a usurper of the worldly powers, and the ultimate sign of the turning of the tables.
As we return to our daily work, clear out space in our homes for received gifts, and recover from too many leftover cookies, may we be mindful of the homeless, the refugee, the persecuted, and the martyrs to violence that still live and suffer in the world today. Jesus not only came for them, but as one of them.
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