Herod, threatened by the news of a new born king and an ancient prophecy, seeking to hedge his bets in an act of cruelty, an inhuman act of savegry, orders all male children, two years of age and younger in and around the environs of Bethlehem, slaughtered. This is what we remember on this 28th day of December. The feast is that of the Holy Innocents, who are listed as martyrs. As the Collect for the day says, the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed the glory of God in the birth of his Son, "not by speaking but by dying". Their martyrdom was not a conscious decision to die for Christ, but their deaths still bore witness to him. The Collect continues: "that the faith in you which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life." Great words, which if put into practice, could transform the world.
The Holy Innocents remind us of the countless children, brought into this world without love and those denied birth, who face "man's inhumanity to man" because of fear, hatred, greed, anger. They are the millions lost to abortion, the countless numbers who are starving, or beaten, or sold into slavery, or abused in any and every way. They comprise children of every nation and of every culture of the world. They are the future of the world, and they are being lost.
If we truly believe in Jesus Christ, and profess his Name, and live his life, and follow his way, it will take more than the confessing with our lips ... we must also speak through our manner of life. These Holy Innocents were "crowned with heavenly grace on account of his birth" ... may we be crowned through the experience of his and our death and resurrection.
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