Octave if Christmas--Feast of the Holy Innocents
Father Aidan Nichols has argued rather convincingly, I
think, that a new feast of the holy innocents should be established for the modern
day victims of abortion. The feast we celebrate today celebrates the witness of
those who died without knowing Christ, but who died because of the jealous rage
of a king who wanted nothing to interfere with his lifestyle. So any rival
claimant to his throne must be killed.
Joseph is warned in a dream to leave. I imagine that the
parents of all the children who died were also warned but perhaps ignored the
dream as nothing more than the result of something they ate the day before.
Most of us can point to similar experiences of ignoring warnings that were
given to us of impending doom or disaster.
The witness that the Holy Innocents give to us is that
accepting Christ demands a decision, will we accept His complete lordship over
our lives? Or will we like Herod seek to kill whatever will interfere with our
pursuit of pleasure.
