28 December 2021
Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs
The feast of the Holy Innocents is not so much a celebration as it is a remembrance of a tragedy. We remember today the broken world into which Jesus enters and desires to save. The Holy Innocents are the children who Herod kills in his search for the Messiah. While King Herod presents honorable motives on the surface, his heart is possessed by darker intentions. The Magi recognize the cruelty of Herod and his paranoia to stay off any threats to his power. They do not return to Herod to report the whereabouts of Jesus and his family. In his anger and desperation, Herod kills the children indiscriminately if they were between the age range Jesus was expected to be. They are not martyrs in the traditional sense because martyrs die for their faith in Christ. Yet, in another sense, they are martyrs since they die in the place of Christ.
Letting the passage sink in prayer is devastating to behold the scene. Each child had a name. They had a set of parents that greeted them into the world and a hope for their future. The existing status quo of power resists and extinguishes the hope and dreams that came with their birth. These children were vulnerable to a society that saw them dispensable, which in Herod’s eyes they clearly were. This tragedy would seem to be unimaginable in today’s society, but that is sorely mistaken. Children are still at risk around the world due to conflict, inadequate nutrition, poverty, various forms of abuse, and insufficient education opportunities. When thinking of Holy Innocents this year, it is hard not to imagine the many indigenous children who died in residential schools due to state sanctioned cultural genocide, in which the Church participated. The Holy Innocents of the past call to us to take seriously those at most risk today.
The resistance the world musters does not surmount God’s plan of redemption. Joseph’s dream prompts him to take his family far out of Herod’s reach where they can be safe. We celebrate God’s intervention that continues the divine promise in Jesus. We also lament too the loss of the Holy innocents and all like them in our present world. If anyone knows the pain of losing a child or dying an innocent death, it is the Lord. May our hearts grow to be like God which can hold both this joy and sadness in our hearts, and may this tension move us to protect the vulnerable in our midst.