The Feast of the Holy Innocents, Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Matthew 2, 13-18

When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: 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 the Holy Church honors those little ones killed by King Herod’s henchmen at his order out of hatred for Jesus Christ.  Devotion to the Holy Innocents, as they care called, goes back into the Church’s antiquity.  The following is a literal translation of the hymn used in the traditional Breviary, written by the early Christian poet Prudentius (d. 413):

Hail, O flowers of the martyrs whom the persecutor of Christ destroyed at the threshold of light, ye newborn roses, as by a whirlwind.

O first victims for Christ, tender flock of sacrificial offerings, ye simple ones play under that altar with your palms and wreathes.

To you, O Jesus, born of the Virgin, be glory, who with the Father and the dear Spirit, is forevermore.  Amen.

We do not know the number of these innocent children.  Some estimates based on our understanding of the population of Bethlehem and the region immediately around it give between a dozen to a few dozen male children to the age of two years old.  During the Middle Ages and later, the popular conception had thousands of children being slaughtered.  Though not actually possible, the high number gives an idea of the horror which people felt for Herod’s savagery.  

We might think about the course of action Herod might have taken.  When apprised by the magi of the Birth of the King of the Jews, he could have prudently or out of simple curiosity sent an emissary from his court with them as they departed for Bethlehem, as advised by the Book of the Prophet Micah.  Certainly that would have proven the wisest path.  He would have learned the poor circumstances of the Child’s Birth and that the parents came from Galilee.  Whatever the magi called him, this Child would have appeared as no threat to Herod’s throne.  If Herod had thought about the magi’s appearance and words a little more, he might have gone himself.  If the stars indicated that this was the King of the Jews, then he could not prevent the Child from growing up and taking his place as King no matter what he did.  It behooved Herod, then, to see for himself and even offer assistance to the Family simply for his own good.  His decision to kill broadly so as to be sure of destroying the destined One shows an reckless use of power that has its origin in both a panicky fear and a thorough disregard for human life.  We might wish that people with these qualities were reserved for nightmares and frightening novels, but they walk among us in all sorts of guises.  Rather than fear them, though, we ought to seek their conversion, remembering the Lord’s own commandments to pray for our enemies.  Not all such people openly wage war or regularly and openly commit violent acts and so we may not know who they are, and so it is incumbent upon us to be careful to give good Christian example and to ready to give the reasons for what we believe.

We pray to the Holy Innocents, asking them to intercede for us that though we cannot match them in their simplicity we might still become as children for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.