Our Help is in the Name of the LORD"

Today's Mass Readings

In this octave of Christmas, we reflect on the amazing gift that God gives to us – his very self as the child Jesus, God among us. In the midst of reflecting on the infant Christ, we have this feast of the Holy Innocents, which commemorates one of the events that happened after the birth of Jesus. Herod, a powerful and domineering king who was afraid of another usurping his power, became angry at the Magi for not returning to see him after their visit to pay homage to Jesus. While the Holy Family fled to Egypt, Herod ordered a massacre in Bethlehem of all the boys two years and younger.

In the midst of this joyful season, when we celebrate God in our midst, we hence find this dreadful event – a massacre of children, who the Church has honored for years as “holy innocents,” and, in some sense, they are the first martyrs to Christ. In their unjust and terrible deaths, they bore witness to the enormity of Christ coming among us. They also bear witness to the world’s rejection of the Christian message. Herod, for one, had no interest in hearing this message, but merely in defeating this message for his own glory.

Matthew’s gospel quotes Jeremiah the prophet in describing the sorrow over the deaths of the boys of Bethlehem: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.” On this day when we reflect on the many innocent children who were killed 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, our thoughts may turn to the many innocents who are killed each day in abortion and the many women who feel forced into abortion believing they have no other choice. What a terrible tragedy it was when the holy innocents were slaughtered in Bethlehem, and what a terrible tragedy it is today that the Christian community is not able to support pregnant women more positively. May the deaths of all innocent children, then and now, help us to grow in appreciation for our own lives.

Let us thank God for the birth of Jesus as well as for our own births! And as we move forward, may we pray for all pregnant women and young children and seek to support them in every way we can.

- Maria Morrow