Sinners are like Herod’s men pursuing Jesus, Mary: Day 225

Sinners are like Herod’s men pursuing Jesus

If we think Herod’s men are villains because they sought out the baby Jesus to kill him, St. Alphonsus urges us to consider how even now our sins also persecute him and afflict his mother.

The most holy Virgin one day appeared to Blessed Collette, a Franciscan nun, and showed her the infant Jesus in a basin, torn to pieces. Mary then said: “This is how sinners continually treat my Son, renewing his death and my sorrows. My daughter, pray for them, so that they may be converted.”

To this we may add another vision, which the venerable Sr. Joanna of Jesus and Mary, a Franciscan nun, also had. She was one day meditating on the infant Jesus persecuted by Herod. She heard a great noise, like the sound of armed men pursuing someone. Immediately she saw before her a most beautiful Child, who, all out of breath and running, exclaimed: “My Joanna, help me, conceal me! I’m Jesus of Nazareth; I’m fleeing from sinners, who persecute me and want to kill me as Herod did. Save me!”

Mary, even after your Son has died at the hands of men who persecuted him to death, these ungrateful men have not yet ceased persecuting him by their sins, and they continue to afflict you, sorrowful Mother! My God, I too have been one of these.

My most sweet Mother, obtain for me tears to weep over such ingratitude. By the sufferings you endured in your journey to Egypt, assist me in the journey I now undertake toward eternity. In that way, I may in the end be united with you in loving my persecuted Savior in the kingdom of the blessed. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
The Magi sought the infant Jesus to worship him; Herod’s soldiers sought him to kill him. Today, which will I be: my Lord’s worshipper, or his persecutor?

CLOSING PRAYER
Lord, I will obey your command: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Is 55:6–7).

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