28 December, 2016

By Celestina Onyia, SHCJ

On this feast the Church invites us to reflect on the painful story in Matthew’s gospel of Herod ordering the execution of all young male children, two years old or under in Bethlehem. By this means he would avoid the loss of his throne to a new born King of the Jews whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi.

In our own time we know there are too many ‘Holy Innocents’: children destroyed by abuse of various kinds, physical, sexual, emotional… also by abortion. For some people, like Herod, these children count as nothing.

The feast should make us proactively seek ways to ensure that the children of the world are protected from those who do them harm.

May the Light of Christ dispel every darkness and enable us to walk always in the path of peace and justice. Amen.