The Feast of the Holy Innocents feels jarring in the midst of the joys of the Christmas Octave, beginning with the Birth of Christ and ending with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Yes, during those eight days we also remember gruesome martyrdoms (St. Stephen’s feast day is Dec. 26 and St. Thomas Becket’s is Dec. 29), but those deaths, bloody and painful as they were, were borne by consenting adults, joyfully willing to offer their lives for their faith.