Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,
he became furious.
He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more.
Matthew 2:13-18

Reflection:
The innocents have suffered a terrible death at the hands of a man who wanted it all. Herod wanted to be king of everything, including heaven it seems. What a sad day to read of the massacre of the young. To be ripped from their mother's arms. And did the women who were pregnant loose their life too to have their child torn from their body.

Such evil Herod did on that day, and it continues to this day. We tear the unborn from the mother's wombs. Yet we find ways to preserve dead bodies. When it is life we should be preserving. It is the little one's we should be nurturing, not terminating their life like Herod has done.

But we do as Herod, out of selfishness because we don't want more than one or two children for fear that we will not be able to fill our bellies with food or clothe our bodies or get extravagant furnishings. So we make a choice to kill the unborn to control the population in some countries and in our own lives. We are like Herod for certain, we seek power as he did.

It's not pretty when we imitate dead rulers that have killed innocent children out of fear.