Thought for the Day – 15 January – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
Meditations for Christmastide
“The Holy Infancy”
From “The Devout Year”
By Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
“Herod’s Vengeance”
+1. When Herod found that the Magi did not return with the information respecting the King Whom they were seeking, he became uneasy.
The plan he had cunningly devised had come to naught; the rival Monarch seemed likely to escape his hands.
One day perhaps he or his children, would be dethroned by Him. O empty fears! That little Child seeks no worldly honour; He will not interfere with any earthly monarch.
The secret fear which destroys the peace of unscrupulous men is often as empty as Herod’s. The terrors they suffer are the just rewards of their evil deeds. How often I have been anxious and troubled because my pride could not brook being humbled!
+2. But Herod was utterly unscrupulous, as well as ambitious. There was one way in which he could secure his end. By putting to death all the young children in the country around Bethlehem, he would compass the death of this Royal Child Who threatened his safety.
Pride and ambition not only blind men but make them utterly indifferent to the sufferings of others and the laws of right and wrong.
I, too, have often recklessly made others suffer to gratify myself and carry out my own selfish ends!
+3. When Herod came to die, how awful must have been the terrors of his guilty conscience!
The blood of those children slaughtered at his command had long cried out to Heaven for vengeance. Each one of them added to his remorse and eternal misery in hell.
If evil men could foresee the consequences to themselves of the sins they commit, they would dread sin, even venial sin, far more than any earthly misery they could suffer.
P.S: This King Herod I died in a most awful manner. Modern research believes he suffered from chronic kidney disease complicated by a very gruesome and uncomfortable case of maggot-infested gangrene of the genitals.
“[21] And upon a day appointed, Herod being arrayed in kingly apparel, sat in the judgement seat and made an oration to them. [22] And the people made acclamation, saying: It is the voice of a god and not of a man. [23] And forthwith an Angel of the Lord struck him because he had not given the honour to God and being eaten up by worms, he gave up the ghost.”
In Acts 12:1-7 we read of this same Herod killing St James, the brother of St John and the first of the Apostles to be Martyred and then he, Herod, wishing to impress the Jews, went on to arrest St Peter. But the Lord released St Peter from his chains – which chains may now be venerated at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
AnaStpaul 