Holy Innocents

Christmas, with all its hope and promise of peace also includes suffering. Foreshadowing the suffering and death of Jesus, and countless martyrs for the faith, is the massacre of the Holy Innocents, whose Feast we celebrate today. They were the first to shed their blood for Christ but were washed in the redemptive blood of Jesus and are now regarded as the first martyrs and thus, saints. The wailing heard in Ramah is now transformed into shouts of joy and gladness as these young innocents are united to their Redeemer. The cycle of death and resurrection is part of the Christmas Octave because it is why God became one of us...to redeem us from sin, from death, and open to us the path to eternal life.
The Church won't let us forget this, as we so easily can when dealing with our empty pocketbooks, or raising our teenagers through their rebellious experimental search for independence and adulthood. Some families undergo more trials than we think any human being can endure. I know a grandmother who last month buried a grandchild, whose husband is dying of cancer, and who lately saw her daughter, the child's mother, attempt suicide...right before Christmas. Pain, depression, questioning, guilt...not what we look for in our Christmas stockings. The martyrdom of the Holy Innocents puts Christmas in perspective: God becomes part of our human race, our human condition with all its pain, injustice and suffering, and shows us that all of this leads paradoxically to life and freedom from these ills. Let us ask the Holy Innocents to intercede for all of us, especially those who cannot make any sense out of their plight, and give us hope.
Bro. Rene