These Innocent Children Were Slain For Christ. They Follow The Spotless Lamb, And Proclaim Forever: Glory To You, Lord!

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs
Reading I
1 John 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.
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Responsorial
Psalm 124
R. 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.
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Gospel
Matthew 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.
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Feast of the Holy Innocents

Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few.

Matthew 2:1-18 tells this story: Herod was “greatly troubled” when astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen. They were told that the Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts and, warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. Jesus escaped to Egypt.

Herod became furious and “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” The horror of the massacre and the devastation of the mothers and fathers led Matthew to quote Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah,/sobbing and loud lamentation;/Rachel weeping for her children...” (Matthew 2:18). Rachel was the wife of Jacob/Israel. She is pictured as weeping at the place where the Israelites were herded together by the conquering Assyrians for their march into captivity.

Comment:
The Holy Innocents are few, in comparison to the genocide and abortion of our day. But even if there had been only one, we recognize the greatest treasure God put on the earth — a human person, destined for eternity and graced by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Quote:
"Lord, you give us life even before we understand"
(Prayer Over the Gifts, Feast of the Holy Innocents).

Patron Saint of:
Babies

Saint of the Day
American Catholic.org