“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more” (Matthew 2:18).
This horrific, and often neglected passage in the story of Jesus’ birth, occurred because “when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under” (Matthew 2:16).
Whether Herod, Hitler, Stalin or Putin, the world has not changed much. How can it be that we live in such a world that allows the killing and maiming of innocent men, women and children for anyone whoever they may think they may be, to remain in power? Yet sadly we live in such a world. I want to be a pacifist, but I am convinced that there lies in the world a form of evil that must be thwarted, which listens not to reason, nor seems capable of empathy or compassion. As Lord Acton put it, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The idolatry of power; it is the demonic.
The prosecution of war is strategic and tactical. Rulers determine the strategy; the ruled provide the personnel for the tactical, putting their very bodies in harm’s way. And who provides these bodies, these children born in love, but now who must kill or be killed? Mothers (and yes, fathers too).
After a visit with Union troops during the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to the famous American song, “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” In 1870, following the American Civil War, Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation, a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. Many women temperance and suffragette activists joined the cause. In the early 1900s, it was Anna Jarvis who conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children, and by extension, promoting world peace by decrying the loss of sons and daughters in war. By 1912, many states, towns and churches had adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday. In 1914, ironically just prior to WWI, President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Anna Jarvis had originally conceived of Mother’s Day as a celebration between mothers and families, with mothers wearing a white carnation as a badge of honor. Very soon, however, florists and card companies capitalized on the sentiment, neglecting the call for peace, causing Jarvis to regret and decry the very holiday she founded. By the time of her death in 1948, she had disowned the holiday altogether, having spent most of her personal wealth in legal fees, seeking to have the holiday removed from the American calendar. As is true with most holidays, the original intent of Mother’s Day was pure: To celebrate motherhood and to promote peace, by refusing to offer their womb-born for the purpose of war, but sentimentality and the power and influence of money won the day.
I am not optimistic for the future, but I am hopeful. The cries of Rachel are heart-wrenching. Her tears are not to be denied. Her cries or tears will not cease until the tyrants of this world stop using her children as pawns in their ugly and grotesque games of war. Tragically, our generation has failed. But I am hopeful that the new generation of mothers (and fathers) will unite and decry the idolatry of power. I am hopeful that the mothers of today will somehow find a way to refuse to sacrifice their children to a demonic idol. My prayer is that they will find a way to console Rachel, and dry her tears.
The Rev. Dr. Lloyd E. Parrill (ret.) lives in Northfield.