Fr Billy Swan
Each year on 28th December, we mark a day dedicated to the memory of children known in the Bible as ‘the holy innocents’. These were the children aged two or under who were put to death by the soldiers of Herod who ordered that they be killed. The jealous tyrant committed this unspeakable atrocity because he felt threatened by the birth of a child in his area of rule who many prophesised would become the real king and usurp his power or even worse, the governing power of the Roman Empire. The holy innocents are commemorated at Christmas because they were put to death near the time of Jesus’ birth. Their brief lives glorify God and became the first of millions down over the centuries who would pay the ultimate price for faith in Christ.
Like everything in the Bible, the meaning of the Holy Innocents’ death extends beyond the historical event itself. The great English writer G.K. Chesterton once wrote that no other religion but Christianity was bold enough to shine a light on the very worst and very best of what human nature has to offer. Sadly, with the death of children, Herod’s actions reveal what is worst where the murder of children is the price he was willing to pay to stay in power and protect himself. But the story has a happy ending because God’s purposes for his Son were not to be frustrated. Yes, Jesus would be killed eventually but not now. Not before he has outflanked Herod and beaten him, not by fighting power with power or might with might but by non-violent resistance, forgiveness, justice and love. Despite his best efforts, Herod’s kingdom would fall, as did the empire of Rome. But God’s kingdom lasts forever and is greater than any earthly kingdom, power of government. This is the lesson of the holy innocents. We can avoid God’s kingdom of justice, truth and right, if only for a while. We can opt out of it, act against it, and fight it. But we can never defeat it. We can never change what is wrong into what is right, we can’t change what is false to what is true, just to suit us.
Today we think of all the holy innocents who suffer. We pray for children who are abused or have been abused and have had their innocence stolen from them. We think and pray for children in vulnerable situations in families, temporary accommodation and those born into poverty and destitution. We think of the children of Gaza and Lebanon where there is war and Sudan where there is hunger.
Lastly, it is impossible to meditate on the feast of the holy innocents without thinking of the modern tragedy of abortion in our world. There are many aspects to the abortion debate and all of them need to be heard and respected. There is a haunting line in the Gospel for the feast of the holy innocents where we are told of Rachel’s weeping “for her children are no more”. Here is the tragedy of abortion. Unborn children who once were, are now no more. It speaks of a sorrow that runs deep in the hearts of all parents who have lost children.
As part of our sombre celebration of this feast, I hope that one important fact will be heard – namely that there are on average one million abortions in the world every week. Thinking about that fact in the light of the holy innocents, perhaps the best way to end this reflection is to bow our heads in silence.
(For global abortion statistics, see www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/factsheet/fb_iaw.pdf).
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