In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
We cry, we weep, we lament the loss of loved ones. But we do so, not as the pagans, the atheists, as many in society around us, not that this is the end for the person: rather we grieve in hope.
“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren,” says the Apostle,
concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
— First Thessalonians 4:13–14
Since for us, the Resurrection is a reality, a Truth, the very assurance to us that Christ has defeated death and that all authority is placed in Him. But if Christ is not dead, so too are those who are in Christ.
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
— First Corinthians 15:12–19
But what of the saints and the righteous?
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
— Matthew 22:32, Exodus 3:6
And the saints intercede for us and beseech God for us. And in today’s Gospel, fulfilling the Prophecy of Jeremiah, Rachel weeps. She, who had fallen asleep more than a thousand years before, weeps and mourns the death of the Holy Innocents.
A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.
— Jeremiah 31:15
They will rise yet she weeps, they are numbered among the righteous yet she wails and laments. And at the sight of injustice, suffering, cruelty and evil it is appropriate to weep, wail and lament. Yet they are alive in Christ.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is good to mourn the loss of someone we love, but we do not do so without hope; for as Christ is risen so shall all arise. And the saints, the holy ones of God, weep with us but in the knowledge that the Lord is coming and will restore what was taken from the wronged and remove from the unrighteous what they have unjustly taken. Let us turn again, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to the living God, let us repent, that we may be numbered among the righteous—with Rachel and her children—that we may be true followers of the Gospel and heirs of eternal Life.
To our incarnate, crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, I would have you know that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it; and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.
— Galatians 1:11–19
When the wise men departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.” But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaos reigned over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
— Matthew 2:13–23