Our Holy Innocents Today
by John M. Grondelski, Crisis Magazine:
The Feast of the Holy Innocents should remind us of the abortion holocaust, not immigration debates. The Church’s vestments are red because the children bled and were dead, not because the Holy Family fled.
Today, December 28, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It commemorates the decision of King Herod to slay boys in Bethlehem and its environs two years of age or younger because he felt betrayed by the Magi, who failed to report back to him the whereabouts of “the newborn King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:16-18).
Our liturgical calendar is not chronological: we mark the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents before we celebrate the Epiphany (and, in the United States, we push that Solemnity from its historical place as Twelfth Night to an adjacent Sunday).
But, from early on, the Church immediately began marking, in the days immediately following Jesus’ birth, the various ways one might follow Him. Because “there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life” (John 15:13), December 26, the very next day after Christmas—observed in many parts of the world as the “Second Day” of Christmas—is the feast of the Church’s first martyr, St. Stephen. He was a martyr of will, love, and blood.
On December 27, the Church honors the only one of the 12 Apostles not to die a martyr’s death: St. John the Evangelist. Having lived a life consecrated to Christ and, by tradition, one of virginal purity, John may not have been killed, but that doesn’t mean people didn’t try (e.g., being given a poisoned chalice) or that he was not otherwise persecuted (Patmos was not a Greek island vacation). “If anyone would follow me, let him take up his cross” (Matthew 16:24-26) applies to all Christ’s disciples, even if they die in their beds. He was a martyr of will and love.
Finally, we come to December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents. They died in witness to Christ even if they didn’t know it. They were martyrs by blood.
I focus on December 28 because I am concerned we not lose sight of its significance.
I have long maintained that this day should be designated as a national day to commemorate those who die as a result of abortion. Roe’s harvest was 60 million-plus lives.
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