Previous to the death of Pope Benedict, we were dealing with the deeper meanings of Advent and Christmas.
The Christmas story does not just range from angels singing about doxa to shepherds finding a baby in a manger and magi journeying from the orient bringing gifts–it is also about evil. Included in the multi-layered and archetypally rich story of Christmas is a story about Herod, the empire’s agent in Palestine in Jesus’ day.
Herod’s decree to kill all new-born boys in Palestine in order to eliminate Jesus is a first class horror story and a hint of what is to come in Jesus’ life as an adult.
Evil too is integral to the Christmas story and its reality rescues us from sentimentalizing Christmas. The light and hope of the season is not set off from history but integral to it. The same is true today. We dare not deny the shadow side of history and humanity’s capacity for doing evil.
Two years ago, on the Feast of Epiphany, January 6, violent intruders interrupted a simple ritual for passing power peacefully in American democracy. These insurrectionists created mayhem that killed six people, threatened lawmakers, and maimed hundreds of police trying to defend the nation’s capital.
An investigation has concluded that the president of the United States, who had lost an election two months earlier, was the ringleader of the horror show that was televised live into our living rooms. His Big Lie that the election was stolen continues to poison American politics.
Evil is part of any authentic reading of human history, the daily news, or the signs of our times. The Christmas story about Herod is very relevant still. I highly recommend a substantive new study called The Herods: Murder, Politics and the Art of Succession by renowned New Testament scholar Bruce Chilton. He lays bare the dynasty of evil that was Herod’s family, the same family that put Jesus to death.
In our day too, evil happens through corrupt human institutions whether religious or secular. More than 10,000 persons in South America were murdered because two popes shut down liberation theology and base communities. Thousands of victims fell prey to priestly pedophilia as church leaders did next to nothing for years, even shutting their eyes to the horrors of Mexican priest Father Maciel’s abuse of seminarians while all the time promoting neo fascist religious sects.
Silencing and denouncing 107 theologians, many of whom had nervous breakdowns, died or lost their livelihoods, resulted in what a professor at my alma mater in Paris described to me this way: “JP II and Ratzinger killed theology in Europe.”
How important is firing theologians in the church? What if General Motors fired all its engineers? A Yes man to dogma does not a theologian make. Maybe it was not so much “secular culture” but a dumbed down religion that effectively killed the church in Europe and opened the door to authoritarianism.
But the Holy Spirit can make good things out of bad, as we will see in Monday’s DM.
To be continued
See Matthew Fox, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved, pp. 106-173.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Flight into Egypt. Pencil drawing by Eugène Girardet (1853–1907). Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
What lessons do you derive from the Herod story embedded in the Christmas stories?
Recommended Reading
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
The Pope’s War offers a provocative look at three decades of corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The final section in the book focuses on birthing a truly catholic Christianity.
“This book should be read by everybody, not only for its ferocious courage, but also for its vision for what needs to be saved from the destructive forces that threaten authentic Christianity.” ~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope.
“In the gripping The Pope’s War, Matthew Fox takes an unwavering look at the layers of corruption in the Catholic Church, holding moral truth against power.” — Jason Berry, author of Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II
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16 thoughts on “Evil in the Christmas Story Yesterday and Today”
Matthew, You today begin by telling us that besides the traditional things that we think about when we think about Christmas, such as the shepherds and Angels, and the Magi with their gifts, included is a “multi-layered and archetypally rich story of Christmas is a story about Herod, the empire’s agent in Palestine in Jesus’ day.” Then there is the story of the “Death of the Innocents” when Herod had all baby boys killed (like in the Moses story). But with that you share how evil is still alive and well on planet earth, for it was just two years ago yesterday, on the Feast of Epiphany, January 6, that “violent intruders interrupted a simple ritual for passing power peacefully in American democracy.” “In our day too,” you write “evil happens through corrupt human institutions whether religious or secular.” Examples:
1) More than 10,000 persons in South America were murdered because two popes shut down liberation theology and base communities.
2) Thousands of victims fell prey to priestly pedophilia as church leaders did next to nothing for years…
3) Silencing and denouncing 107 theologians, many of whom had nervous breakdowns, died or lost their livelihoods.
4) A Yes man to dogma does not a theologian make. Something the Church needs to remember !!!
Finally, you ask, “What lessons do you derive from the Herod story embedded in the Christmas stories?” The lesson I have learned is political powers can be the means of destruction–as Herod did then, and as Hitler did In WWII, and Putin is doing now. And, whenever there is a religious conflict and politics steps in, religious people lose…
Are we not all on the flight from ignorance to enlightenment. With ignorance comes the Herods, evil intentions, harm and divisiveness. With enlightenment comes Jesus, affections of the heart and communion. With 8 billion people and growing, when will we ever see the end of all ignorance and the need not to have enlightenment? All we can do ourselves is to become that enlightenment and suffer the joys and perils of doing so. Do things not get observed and hopefully addressed once we shine a ‘light’ upon them?
Are we not unlike Jesus then, and inherently shine our own light which serves to illuminate that which is now in darkness and hidden, so that it can be revealed? Did Jesus’s mere presence as a ‘babe’ not cause Herod to reveal himself as evil in nature? Would some people rather kill or silence us rather than be revealed and change? If we can expect it, live with it and transcend its limitations are we then not called ‘disciples’ that can create ‘heaven’ for ourselves and those on earth for those who desire it?
Christmas also ultimately revealed ‘the way of the Cross’ did it not? Do we not all stand naked in front of the Lord and everyone else when ‘the light of this reality’ is not taken up by ourselves, our own Cross to carry whatever that may be? — BB.
At the beginning of the Crusades in 1095, Pope Urban II issued the Papal Bull Terra Nullius – a decree explaining the policy of the Catholic Church about “empty” land. This decree gave European kings the right to “discover” and claim land in non-Christian areas. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V extended this policy through the Papal Bill Romanus Pontifex that declared war against all non-Christians in the world and authorized the conquest of their nations and territories.
The 1452 Papal Bull is commonly called the Doctrine of Discovery, and was used as justification to treat non-Christians as uncivilized and subhuman who had no rights to any land or nation. They claimed that Christians had a God-given right to “capture, vanquish, and subdue the saracens, pagans, and other enemies of Christ,” to “put them into perpetual slavery,” and “to take all their possessions and property.” They were applied in thr exploration and colinization of Africa and the Americas. The Doctrine of Discovery is the basis for slavery and all Indian land law in the United States and Canada. Genocide in the United States accounted for the death of over two million Native Americans.
The unfortunate reality I and many others are beginning to understand, due to hidden truths being exposed particularly within the Catholic Church; are the many horrendorous evils and corruptive ways of the Herodian Empire and how these still live and breathe within the religious, political and judicial governance, which powerfully exercised, influences the institution of the Vatican to this very day… all under the false guise of “God’s Will.”
True repentance, which Jesus taught and lived the alternative of with Moxa and Doxa, is about taking a stand against such religious, political and judicial evils of corruption and injustices… which involves not only truth-telling and much more than asking for forgiveness… but rather more importantly it requires an active conscious mind and heart conscience choice of turning away from the religious, political and judicial evils of corruption and injustices and seeking to do so with Compassion. Love and Mercy… which is the influential governance within this institution; taking responsibility and standing accountable for the pain, suffering and wounding caused and alleviating this, walking towards the pathway of healing, through the restoration and reconciliation of being and living in right relationship with. To my understanding, this is the will of God!
Seems to me, that the institution of the Vatican and the Catholic Church has lost the true Spirit of Moxa and Doxa exemplified in Jesus the Christ.
Jeanette, I want to emphasize two things you wrote today: First, “within the Catholic Church; are the many horrendous evils and corruptive ways of the Herodian Empire and how these still live and breathe within the religious, political and judicial governance, which powerfully exercised, influences the institution of the Vatican to this very day… all under the false guise of “God’s Will.” This is true as Matthew has shown us in his examples, and in his own life experience. Secondly you write: “it requires an active conscious mind and heart conscience choice of turning away from the religious, political and judicial evils of corruption and injustices and seeking to do so with Compassion… To my understanding, this is the will of God!” Thank you Jeanette !!!
One of the lessons I think that can be derived relates to the Crucifixion when Jesus called out from the cross, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” The implication is that Jesus was saying “forgive the mob” who were baying for his death for they were unaware of how they had been manipulated by the real forces of evil, “the herods”, who cunningly and deliberately controlled the narrative.
We have the same powerful forces manipulating the unthinking majority in the world today.
Paul, Today you write: “One of the lessons I think that can be derived relates to the Crucifixion when Jesus called out from the cross, ‘Forgive them for they know not what they do.’ The implication is that Jesus was saying ‘forgive the mob'”–he was, and we need to also. When people ask me to sum Jesus’ teachings up in a word whereas most would say “Love,” I say that Jesus said far more about forgiveness in his parables, and outright in such ways as in the quote you refer to, as well as in the answer to how many times should we for give someone–not 7 times but 70 X 7 !!! So let’s forgive and forget, and let’s let go of our hurts and let them be…
Richard, I agree with you on the issue of forgiveness. Few things are worse than holding a grudge, at any time for any reason. But it takes bigness of heart to see that, and to live that.
The symbol/archetype of Herod represents to me the ongoing human history of the evil and toxic unbalanced male energies of egocentricity and patriarchal values in our secular lives and social institutions, including religions, with all the destructiveness and suffering it continues to cause in our present times. Fortunately, God’s Feminine Spirit of Love~Wisdom~Truth~Peace~Justice~Healing~Transformation~Power~Creativity~Compassion~Loving Diverse Oneness… is very much Alive and Present in our hearts and among us in the spiritual journeys of our eternal souls within co-Creation~Evolution of our Sacred Cosmos, including our beautiful Sacred Mother Earth….
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As a vowed Dominican sister of Peace for 60 years, I do believe there are many lessons to be learned from the Christmas Stories both personally and communally. Good and evil will be with us always and yet through Jesus’s birth, death and resurrections we have the grace to choose good over evil. Do we do so always? No, are we forgiven, yes, by the mercy of God. Suffering is a part of our lives here on earth and we can learn from the Christmas stories and personally in our own lives how suffering brings new life. Does it cause pain and grief, yes. How do we deal with it? Through prayer seeking the Truth in Jesus that sets us free and gives us compassion for ourselves and others. Love impels my journey to pray always, love tenderly and walk humbly with my God and community. To love and care for all my sisters and brothers and all creation in this world and in the next. Blessings and Peace in 2023 to all!
Sister Brigid, Today you write (among other things): “Good and evil will be with us always and yet through Jesus’s birth, death and resurrections we have the grace to choose good over evil. Do we do so always? No, are we forgiven, yes, by the mercy of God.” Just as Jesus once said, “The poor have you always” he could have also said, “Good and evil will be with you always.” No, we don’t always choose good, but “we forgiven, yes, by the mercy of God.” Thank God for God’s forgiveness and divine mercy !!!
No wonder Jesus was murdered because he was a threat to the church and secular leaders of the day!!!
Jesus was united in “unified oneness” with the ONE who called & sent him. His mind, being, soul, everything about him was in this state and he could not do anything less than represent truth…nor did he want to. TRUTH costs each and every one of us something who choose to and are called to represent it. How can we liberate ourselves from the many shackles of fear that open for us a multitude of opportunities to ignore, turn a dead eye & deaf ear, and become bedfellows with evil which is killing all of us whether we acknowledge it or not??? Evil’s purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy truth and that’s exactly what it is doing…fulfilling its purpose. We ought to ask Ourselves, “What is OUR purpose…What is MY PURPOSE?” Evil is not going away. Serve it or serve truth as Jesus did.
Eternity, Today you ask: “How can we liberate ourselves from the many shackles of fear that open for us a multitude of opportunities to ignore, turn a dead eye & deaf ear, and become bedfellows with evil which is killing all of us whether we acknowledge it or not???” It seems that the only way we can do this is to live lives of love, forgiveness, perseverance, faith and hope! Then you add: “Evil’s purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy truth and that’s exactly what it is doing…fulfilling its purpose. We ought to ask Ourselves, “What is OUR purpose…What is MY PURPOSE?” Evil is not going away. Serve it or serve truth as Jesus did.” I believe that our PURPOSE is to serve God wherever that takes us–in place or ideas.
Amen.
To me, this story reminds us that power corrupts. Rulers and institutions with great power will always protect their power from perceived threats, even if the “threats” are miracles of Goodness and/or lives of innocent people. Power feeds on the exploitation of those with less power. It takes advantage of unequal power dynamics to silence the victims.. Jesus offered an alternative to vertical power structures in society, in the Temple and in government, telling people to share meals in communion and give respect, healing and love to all, even the ostracized, the least powerful, and telling them all that he, too, was a “least one.” He attributed his miracles humbly to God, not claiming any credit or superiority for himself. And this radical, horizontal share-equality social/religious construct would be (or was, by the actual time the story was composed) inevitably violently opposed and replaced with ever more vertical power dynamics, and more innocents sacrificed in the name of the Empire (Power). Jesus was portrayed as both gentle role model/wisdom teacher and Temple rebel. When he rebelled, he was crushed by the Empire, because that’s what vertical Power structures do.
A few years ago, I read that Herod’s so-called “The Slaughter of the Innocent” was not historical. (Perhaps I read it in John Dominic Crossan’s big book “The Historical Jesus”?) Since then, I’ve been focusing on the symbolism of Biblical stories–not whether they represent historical fact or not, but what do the stories’ metaphors mean? What are the stories’ spiritual messages for me today?
Nonetheless, today I decided to see what others think about the historicity of Herod’s decree, and I found this source: https://biblearchaeology.org/research/new-testament-era/2411-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents-historical-fact-or-legendary-fiction. I have no idea if this resource is trustworthy.
Could you speak to this, Matthew? Do you believe The Slaughter of the Innocents and other Biblical stories to be historically accurate? Is historical accuracy important to you? When we quibble over historical accuracy are we missing the point?