HOLY INNOCENTS, Feast

Tuesday December 28

HOLY INNOCENTS, Feast

Introduction

Today’s celebration shocks us into the realization that the birth of Christ was not all peace and joy. The coming of Jesus was the beginning of a struggle-to-death between the powers of evil and the kingdom of light, a struggle that would have its climax in the passion and death of Jesus. Herod stands here for the forces of evil. Even innocent children are often the victims of this enmity.

The story of the Innocents may very well be a theological illustration of Matthew on this climactic clash between good and evil that began with the birth of Jesus. Often the innocents have to suffer on account of so much evil in the world caused by people.

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
today’s innocent martyrs
bore witness to you
not by proclaiming your name in words
but by laying down their lives for you,
even though they were not aware of it.
We pray to you on their feast
that we may bear witness to you
both by the words we speak
and the way we live what we believe in.
May we do so in the full awareness
of what we are doing.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

Reading 1: 1 JN 1:5—2:2

Beloved:
This is the message that we have heard from Jesus Christ
and proclaim to you:
God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
If we say, "We have fellowship with him," 
while we continue to walk in darkness,
we lie and do not act in truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
then we have fellowship with one another,
and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
If we say, "We are without sin,"
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just 
and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.
If we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar, 
and his word is not in us.

My children, I am writing this to you
so that you may not commit sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous one.
He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.

Responsorial Psalm: PS 124:2-3, 4-5, 7CD-8

(7) Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.
Had not the LORD been with us—
When men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive,
When their fury was inflamed against us.
R. Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.
Then would the waters have overwhelmed us;
The torrent would have swept over us;
over us then would have swept the raging waters.
R. Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.
Broken was the snare,
and we were freed.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare.

Alleluia: ‘Te Deum’

Alleluia, alleluia.
We praise you, O God,
we acclaim you as Lord;
the white robed army of martyrs praise you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: MT 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.

Intercessions

–       That especially children may be spared from suffering, malnutrition and maltreatment, we pray to God our merciful Father:

–       That children may not become the victims of unloving parents who do not want them, abandon them or desert them as they separate from each other, we pray:

–       That children may have caring parents who help them to grow toward a generous and rich adulthood, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

We bring these our gifts before you, Lord God;
accept them from your faithful people,
that we may be strengthened in our faith.
May they also bring your salvation
to those whom we sometimes call anonymous Christians,
those who do not know you,
yet who seek you with a sincere heart
by trying to do what is right and good.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Lord, God of eternal light,
we all share in the struggle-to-death
between light and darkness.
Let the light of your love and peace
shine among people all over the world,
that our solidarity in the evil of sin
may be changed into a new solidarity
of justice, forgiveness and community
by the coming among us of your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Blessing

We ask the Lord today that he may bless especially our children, that they may grow up as God’s children, as good Christians and good citizens. May almighty God bless them and you all, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Commentary

A Call to protect human life
Today the Church commemorates the killing of the children of Bethlehem ordered by Herod, who wanted to get rid of the ‘new-born King’. Herod the king of Judea, was so insecure and scared of threat to his throne. A master politician and tyrant who cared the least for extreme brutality, he had been responsible for the murder of his own wife and sons as well as for the deaths of countless others. Killing a few more helpless infants did not mean to him anything!

The Holy Innocents are few in comparison to the genocides of the history or the abortions of our day. In 2016, Pope Francis issued a letter to the bishops on the occasion of the Feast of the Holy Innocents. In the letter, the pope acknowledged the physical and sexual abuse of children by the clergy who destroyed their dignity and begged for forgiveness. He called on the bishops and the clergy to “find the courage needed to take all necessary measures and to protect in every way the lives of our children, so that such crimes may never be repeated.”

In 2017 the pope challenged the world saying, "children of today's world, who are not lying in a cot, caressed with the affection of a mother and father, but rather suffer the filthy "mangers that devour their dignity", hiding underground to escape bombardment, on the pavements of large cities, or at the bottom of a boat overladen with immigrants." We must be challenged by children "who are not allowed to be born, by those who cry because no one satiates their hunger, and by children who do have - not toys in their hands, but rather weapons," said the Pope.
Celebrating the feast of Holy Innocents is meaningless unless we identify the innocent victims of our own times. Pharaoh ordered the killing of the Hebrew children to secure his seat of power in the Old Testament. Herod ordered the killing of infants for the fear of threat to his power. Strange enough, the pattern continues to this day. Governments around the world are decided on the basis of the politician’s stand on abortion. Favouring abortion turns out to be a requirement to win elections in many parts of the world.

Pope Francis reminds us: Christian joy is born from a call – the same call that Mary and Joseph received – to embrace and protect human life, especially that of the holy innocents of our own day. Christmas is a time that challenges us to protect life, to help it be born and grow.