Feast of the Holy Innocents

The days following the Solemnity of the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ are filled with commemorations of saints.  This is the Church’s way of saying that the birth of Jesus has brought not only joy to the world but an opportunity to be united with God in heaven.  The birth of Jesus signals the beginning of the fruition of God’s salvation in Jesus.

Today, the Church remembers the massacre of the infants in Bethlehem.  In the New Testament, Matthew gives us a narrative of this event that happened a few days after Mary’s giving birth to Jesus.  It is said that Herod “the Great,” king of Judea at that time, was so unpopular with his people because of his ties with the Romans and his indifference to Judaism.  He was insecure and fearful of any threat to dethrone him.  He was capable of extreme brutality – he killed his wife, his brother, and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few.

The story of the massacre in Matthew’s Gospel (2:1-18) begins with the arrival of the astrologers from the east asking about the whereabouts of “the newborn King of the Jews,” whose star they had seen.  They were told that the Jewish Scriptures had named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born.  Herod was greatly troubled.  He told them to report back to him so that he could also “do Him homage.”  They found Jesus, offered Him their gifts, and after being warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way back to their own places.

Herod became anxious and “ordered the massacre of all the infants in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.”  The horror of the massacre and the devastation of the mothers and fathers led the evangelist Matthew to borrow the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children…” (Matthew 2:18).  Rachel was the wife of Jacob who later was named Israel.  Jesus was spared because the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream to bring Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

 

Today, we remember the innocent victims of the massacre of the infants in Bethlehem and in neighboring places as we also vow to stop all forms of inhumanity today.  May this feast remind us of the value of human life.  In our world today, because of the greed of many, modern forms of “massacre” are taking place.  Life is God’s gift and we must treasure it and uphold its dignity at all times.