“And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of the where Christ should be born. But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet: ‘And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.’ Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them: And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him.”
While Herod’s irritation at a king of the Jews arising, which can be immediately seen as a threat to his secular dominion, the troubling of all Jerusalem bears noting. It would be understandable that Jerusalem would begin to move in a manner suited to insurrection and celebration, but no, they instead are troubled. Fear of Rome, rather, and a desire for the status quo made Jerusalem bristle, for love does not fit comfortably into the way things are. No, love pulls one out of oneself, drawing the soul out of hiding and into the arms of something new and foreign, and those in Jerusalem were not ready for the emergence of love underneath the hard heart of Herod. This same Herod immediately beckons the experts in the Scriptures to inquire from where this King should arise, and it is not in Jerusalem or in Rome, places of power and splendor, but in little Bethlehem from which the King shall come. He is born in the “house of bread,” for He is the living bread, the bread of life, the sustenance that is love. For what is life lived with bread alone? What is a life of toil and hardship all to pay for necessities, without this intimacy? “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me” (Song 6:2). Love is the flower from the rose bush of life, and it is love that sustains man that he may have meaning and purpose. So is your Beloved Jesus to you; His love gives a goal, His mercy gives joy, His Heart gives purpose, for this is a love tender and unbreakable, a love like any love, a love that is yours for the taking. Bethlehem is described as “not the least among the princes of Juda,” for out of it will come the Savior. So too, is the little soul, so seemingly the least amongst the peoples of the earth, great in the wisdom of love, for out of one’s own heart comes the love of the Sacred Heart; “For he that is the lesser among you all, he is the greater” (Luke 9:48), for whoever loves all and displays this by serving all, bringing a towel and a washbasin into every encounter, is the greatest in making one’s neighbor feel loved. The love in your heart brings you low in the eyes of the world, “for having lifted me up thou hast thrown me down” (Psalm 101:11), yet this lowliness is captivating to Him whose eye is upon the little and the broken: “Thou hast wounded my heart… with one hair of thy neck” (Song 4:9), that is, with even a glimmer of His yoke of meekness. Herod then characteristically uses guile and calls the Magi to ask them about the star, sending them on their way under the guise of devotion. O how God takes care of those who seek and love Him! You need only go to Him, leaving the trail of your devotion to all, and they will do with it what they will: “We will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments” (Song 1:3). The Magi were not leading Herod to kill Jesus, but left enough about Him to warrant a true conversion, which was not accepted. This was not on the part of the saintly Magi, but on the failure to receive the divine message by Herod. So too is it beautiful to love all in Christ, to love all for His sake, and be the response a welcoming or a slammed door filled with insults, love has been extended; “If that house be worth, your peace shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall return to you” (Matthew 10:13). All you will take with you to your heavenly homeland is what you have given away, and this is of the utmost case with your heart and the love within it.