Let Us Never Forget

Though today is the feast of the Holy Family (and let us pray for all families, that they may imitate the Holy Family of Nazareth and find in the intercession of Jesus, Mary and Joseph every grace and help they need) if today were not Sunday it would be the feast of the Holy Innocents. 

These little boys, about a dozen all under two years of age, were killed by King Herod as he sought to kill the Christ.  Apart from the horror of their death and their veneration in the Church as martyrs, they have also become patrons for the pro-life movement representing in many ways those other innocents who are killed in their infancy: the victims of abortion.

These little boys and girls, denied their right to life, now number millions, are also denied a voice and even denied their very humanity so their killers can cover over their crimes. But their murder is a crime, and though the world and its governments and its powerful women and men choose to ignore, to forget, let us never forget. Let us commemorate these little ones sacrificed in the name of so-called "choice". May their blood shed in the clinics, hospitals and abortion facilities of the world, intercede with God for justice and an end to this holocaust.

May the Holy Innocents stand at the gates of heaven and welcome the victims of the culture of death, and may God give them what has been denied them here: life, respect, love and a recognition of their existence and their humanity.

In memory of these little ones, we might listen to the Coventry Carol, usually sung at Christmas it is in reality a hymn about the massacre of the Innocents, a lament in the form of a lullaby.

They Follow The Lamb

Our feast today, I think, is one of the most poignant in the Church's calendar - the feast of the Holy Innocents.  The liturgy is very beautiful as it honours the little boys who knew nothing of the world, never mind the Lord who created them.  And yet, in this innocence, before some of them could speak, they are murdered - put to death in the place of Christ. 

In his reflection for the feast, St Quodvultdeus says that they were taken to be Jesus Christ, and what a grace: there is the programme for our lives: to seek to resemble Jesus Christ, to be taken for him, mistaken for him.  That is why we are called Christians - so we might be Christ.  As St Paul puts it: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me".   One of the wonderful images the liturgy offers us today sums it all up beautifully: they follow the lamb.  As little children, they skip along behind him.  I pray we might all be able to do the same.

Today is, of course, a day to remember all the Innocents who have be slaughtered.  Those who have been abused.  But also those who have perished in the culture of death: the aborted, those killed in the procedures like IVF and embryonic stem cell research, those who die unknown thanks to the Morning After Pill. Lives deemed worthless and so discarded.  It is also a day to remember the millions of children who lie frozen in fertility clinics all over the world - suspended, neither allowed to live or die.  What horrors the people of this time have visited upon our children.  Today's Herods wear white coats, speak with gentle voices in counselling rooms, wield pipettes instead of swords, dispense tablets. 

There are many parallels between the slaughter of the Innocents and the culture of death in our day, but there is one I find most intriguing.  Some scholars dispute the event - they say that there is not one shred of evidence outside St Matthew's Gospel that these little boys of Bethlehem were killed, so they deny it happened - it was made up, a mere literary device to get the Infant Jesus to Egypt.  Well, St Matthew saw fit to record it and to attribute a prophecy to foretell it: it must have happened.  Given that Matthew was writing for Jewish audience, the massacre must have had some significance. 

However, this scholarly attitude parallels that of many today who defend abortion, contraception, IVF etc - they deny that they are wrong, they deny the facts, they will not allow them be known: they even deny the humanity of those who are murdered.    They are living in denial, they are easily offended when the facts are made known and they fight back, their most potent weapon being "feeling hurt".

May our dear little Saints, the Holy Innocents, martyrs for Christ, intercede for us, for the pro-life cause, and for an end to the culture of death.  May they watch over us and guide us in our lives so like them, we too may be taken for Christ, and yes, even have the joy of suffering for him. 

Memorial of the Holy Innocents

Given the age in which we live, today's feast resonates with the abortion industry which daily massacres the innocents in the name of choice (but more accurately in the name of money, and indeed, in the name of evil).  The little martyrs of Bethlehem are most interesting - they were babies and toddlers - all boys, put to death by Herod the Great's soldiers on his orders, as they frantically looked for the infant proclaimed a king by the magi.  These children had not reached the age of reason, they knew nothing of Christ, they did not make any decision to lay down their lives for him, yet in their tragic death the Church sees martyrdom and honours them for their sacrifice. 

Their feast is one we should take seriously each year and celebrate with prayer and reparation.  Providentially, it is a response to the evil of abortion and anti-life technologies, a call for Christians to take the pro-life cause to heart and a direct challenge to those supporters of abortion and technologies of death who claim to be Christians.  It is also a call to Christian politicians to get off the fence and fight against abortion and the culture of death rather than opine that they are personally opposed but.....  Sorry people, he or she who is not with us is against us, the "personally opposed" position is rubbish, nonsense, perhaps even a spineless attempt to support the greatest evil mankind has ever known, but, for convenient reasons, trying to play ball with the Church too - cynical in the extreme. 

An interesting suggestion arose a few years ago, that, following the recognition of the Holy Innocents, those children aborted might be declared martyrs, some prominent theologians have been engaged in relfection on this issue.  Personally, I am not sure.  But certainly the discussion focuses our attention on those killed in the womb.

Prayer to the Holy Innocents

for the Cause of Life

O Blessed Martyrs of Bethlehem,

you Holy Innocents,

who shed your blood for Christ,

intercede for the Cause of life in these difficult times. 

Before you could speak, you proclaimed the Messiah,

and welcomed him, not with ceremony, or rich gifts

or eloquent eulogy,

but with the generous offering of your lives

protecting him so he could live to lay down his life for you,

shedding his blood to redeem you and all mankind. 

Receive into your arms all those little ones
who have been sacrificed and killed
in the abortion clinics of the world
or destroyed in laboratories or clinics,
take them to the throne of our merciful God
so he may embrace them in the life and love
they were denied on earth.


Intercede for those responsible for their deaths:
for doctors, nurses and administrators,
for those who promote the culture of death,
for those enriched by the industry of death,
for those fooled by false compassion,
for those who, in igorance, offend the Gospel life:
by your prayers may they be converted.


Intercede, dear little Ones,
for the mothers of these children,
for their conversion and transformation,
for their consolation and healing,
so they may come to know the mercy of God;
by your prayers may they be reconciled
and become prophets of life.


Support the Church in her mission for life,
pray that all followers of Christ will proclaim the dignity of life
and seek to protect it
most particularly at its most vulnerable stages.

Pray for us, O Holy Innocents, martyrs for Christ,
that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Here is a rendition of the beautiful Coventry Carol, written in memory of the Holy Innocents: