Holy Innocents

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.

Saturday is the third anniversary of the death of Junaid. I never met Junaid, but I met his mother a few weeks afterwards at the height of her grief. Junaid died from brain cancer, but, like all stories, it’s a lot more complicated. He came from a family wracked by domestic violence.

I thought of his mother this week, as we mourned another young child whose life was taken way too early. How would the death of Aaden affect Junaid’s mother, especially as we approach the third anniversary of Junaid’s death? His mother is a devote Muslim. How would all of this fit together during the holy month of Ramadan?

In the story from the Gospel, we don’t hear about the mothers of the children that Herod slaughtered, except as Rachel as a metaphor for them.

Rachel’s children: the children of the Babylonian captivity, the children of Bethlehem killed by Herod, the children of the holocaust, the children of domestic violence, of Junaid’s mother and of Aaden’s mother. Junaid and Aaden are part of this very special group.

Grief can be especially painful when we think we have it under control and it comes back at an anniversary or with some other event reminding us of our grief, and so I, in my Episcopalian ways, keep Junaid’s mother in my prayers.

I don’t understand suffering. Sure, I’ve heard it put into one theological context or another, but that rarely seems to ease the suffering. I don’t understand God, or as Junaid’s mother calls God in Arabic, Allah. I don’t understand why God has place Junaid’s mother in my life or called me to pray for her. It would seem as if I should be praying for Episcopalians and Muslims should be praying for Junaid’s mother, but God seems to do things differently.

So, I’ve written about Junaid and his mother in the past. I’m writing about them again now and will probably write about them again in the future. I think of the Psalm:

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Will the words of my mouth be a blessing to Junaid’s mother and to others? Will Allah give words to Junaid’s mother to be a blessing of others? I pray that this will be the case.

Perhaps that is what we all need to do, find words of comfort and encouragement for whomever God, or Allah, puts in our paths.