Today the Church honors the holy ones, called the Holy Innocents who died at the hands of Herod after Jesus' birth. We read about that is today's Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2:
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.
PRAYER
Pray that the massacre of the Holy Innocents is not perpetuated with the continued destruction of innocent human life through the sin of abortion. Lord Jesus, source of life, deliver us from all sorrow and pain, darkness and death. Grant that we may see the day when the darkness of abortion may be dispelled by your light. For you are Lord,
for ever and ever. Amen.
The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The Christ child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it. - Saint Quodvultdeus (d. 450) Sermon on the Holy Innocents
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