The days of Caesar Augustus, emperor of Rome, were ruled by the sword. History emphatically records this. No democratic government neither existed nor was spoken of—either in palaces, on street corners, or in marketplaces. Fierce Roman emperors maintained peace through self-serving ambition and vehemently carried it out by the swords of their obedient armies.
WATANI
International
8 January 2012
The days
of Caesar Augustus, emperor of
were ruled by the sword. History emphatically records this. No democratic
government neither existed nor was spoken of—either in palaces, on street
corners, or in marketplaces. Fierce Roman emperors maintained peace through
self-serving ambition and vehemently carried it out by the swords of their
obedient armies.
Men who
publicly questioned or opposed either the Caesar or his appointed governors,
such as Herod governor of the Roman
of
death. Competitiveness and rivalry were vanished as quickly as the threat was a
realisation. When the wise men “magi”
from the Far East arrived in the Roman
in search of “a great king” recently born, Herod immediately sought them out.
Dissatisfied
with the actions of the wise men following their visit with the “newborn king”,
Herod implemented a horrendous plan. Impulsively and without forethought, he
decreed that all Jewish infants two years of age and under in the region were
to be killed.
“Then
Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry;
and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem
and in all its districts, from two years old and under according to the time he
had determined by the wise men” (Matthew
2:16)
While
unfathomable with the standards of society today, the Jewish parents had no
alternatives and could not display open opposition. The Jews were not of the
ruling class and they were not among the lineage of the Caesars and rarely if
ever among the governors. They had no input into the governmental affairs that
presided over the rules and regulations they were bound to.
Even so,
how could one governor obsessed with thoughts of a rival be allowed to proclaim
that all male Jewish infants have the breath of life taken from them in search
of only one? How did anger, bitterness, depression, and lashing out not reign
over all the land with just this single act of brutality? Why do we not learn
of riots and retaliation to the slaughter of likely thousands of male Jewish
infants? The Holy Bible does tell us
that many where moved to compassion with lamentation, weeping, and great
mourning for these slaughtered innocent children which could wipe away
generations of Jews.
Some
scholars suggest that perhaps the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ was a subtle
act of warfare. Who is the real Prince of Peace, Caesar in his chariot amongst
armies or our Lord baby Jesus in a manager amongst the service of the Holy
Family? We may find this question unanswered in the fact that the Jewish
leaders could not look beyond their suffering neither to seek the Divine love
of the long anticipated Messiah nor to have the insightful recognition of a
prophecy fulfilled. Suffering became a pit of disparity and unhappiness.
Happiness
will not be obtained through self-centred desires, mundane pleasures, or a life
of wealth. Happiness and its varying
degrees depend upon the level of one’s spiritual awareness. The Divinity of the
Son of God, not born in time but born of time, would come to earth to teach us
exactly this.
Men of God
had longed for the Messiah across the ages. Prophets had foretold of His
coming. Only in the fullness of time did the Old Testament prophecies become
attained with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the Perfectly appointed
time, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ came and it seems when man needed Him
most. Without question, He came in the form in which man could most understand
and relate to.
The Word
of God took what was universally ours throughout the past, present, and future
generations, our Humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ became a man while yet
remaining the Only Begotten Son of God.
It was an act of indisputable love in the form of an infant. This
presentation to the world would be historically recorded as a confirmation of
the Divine Love of God given to man by sending His only begotten Son to seek and
save those who could not see beyond the suffering and those who had become a
victim to it.
The Lord
Jesus Christ did not suddenly come to earth as a man preaching and teaching the
Word of God. He entered into His
Humanity, an infant heralding joy and gladness upon His Holy Family and those
who would learn of His Holy Birth. In an
era of turmoil and suffering widespread, the Lord Jesus’ birth raised the
believers above earthly tribulations with joy and gladness.
For those
whose hearts pursue higher divine states of happiness, our Father in Heaven
provides us with a continual state of contentment, joy, and praise in the
Infant, a love that is without end was conceived; a perpetual love.
May we as
Coptic Christians thank God for the blessings of the first union of the Holy
Incarnation, taking upon our humanity and the teachings of true and lasting
happiness. May we pray to God that as we seek His second union with us, that
His Divine and abiding love will provide us with the strength to continue in
His teachings fervently until that appointed time, making the second union
exceedingly happier than that of the first.
“For God
so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever should
believe on Him will have everlasting life”
(John 3:16).
His
Grace Bishop Youssef is Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the