Today we celebrate the babies of Bethlehem who were put to death by King Herod as part of his desperate attempt to stop the coming of the Messiah. The Church honors them as martyrs because they lost their lives for Jesus’ sake.
By extension, it is also an appropriate day to honor all the many millions of innocent babies around the world in our own time who have been forcibly aborted or made victims of infanticide. We ask the Holy Innocents to pray for us, that God will bring an end to violence against children and have mercy on us all.
From Johnnette Benkovic’s Graceful Living: Meditations to Help You Grow Closer to God Day by Day
“How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.”
— From a homily of St. Quodvultdeus on the Holy Innocents
How do I bear witness to Christ in my words and in my deeds? Am I willing to bear witness through the gift of my life? Why or why not?
