And to celebrate the second day of the Octave of Christmas, the Church remembers... a man being viciously stoned?? So much for a joyful Christmas, it seems!
But the wisdom of the Church knows better. To understand the meaning of Christmas, it is most fitting to remember a deacon being stoned to death, a virgin giving up what the world believes most makes merry, and innocent children slaughtered by a tyrant.
If that doesn't seem to strike the right note, we need to pay attention.
C.S. Lewis once remarked: "Enemy-occupied territoryâthat is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landedâyou might say landed in disguise as one of usâand is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."
Martyrs, virgins, holy innocents: these are the soldiers that follow the King, his retinue. They are the first ones in, holding the beachhead.
We see it: Christmas is easily sentimentalized. But these feasts remind us why Christ came and of the cost of his victory. Christ gladly pays the price; he sacrifices his life to overcome evil. He must, for the world cannot abide what he represents and so will reject him.
But these days remain supremely joyful because Christ has revealed how love overcomes all adversaries. The early Church did not mourn her martyrs; she joyfully celebrated them. She did not pity her virgins; she admired them. She did not forget her holy innocents (some tragedies are better left unmentioned, they say); she announced them the first victors to share in the King's glory.
To say this child was born to bring peace is to say he came for battle: not the kind we are used to, to be sure, but a conflict all the same. And we are in the same fight, won not with worldly weapons but with the witness of truth and the sacrifice of love.