Intense Moment at Bethlehem

Intense indeed! I can just imagine Mary, finally settled into a more comfortable place to care for a newborn, having just received three strangers from another country, suddenly awakened in the middle of the night to trek (yet again) by donkey to another strange place...where who knows what awaits... She's already heard a foreboding prophesy by some old man in the temple. I can imagine my own response in this situation (something along the lines of "you gotta be kidding me, oh Lord. Does it never end!?!")

What helped me most, though, was Gire's take on why Jerusalem was troubled along with Herod. I always wondered about that. I can understand a crazy and corrupt king being worried for his job, but why a whole city? Of course. It makes sense now. Under the occupation of Rome, the Jewish temple (translate: priests, scribes, bureaucrats) were in constant danger that any little hint of rebellion could topple their tenuous positions. Of course they were troubled. I think of other countries since that time that have been occupied... the uneasy lives of people just trying to get along, keep feeding their families, staying out of the limelight, staying out of trouble. Turn your back on any talk of conspiracy, of any knowledge of an underground. Keep a low profile. You could be rounded up tomorrow and executed.