12/28/2015 – Feast of the Holy Innocents – Reflection

     This is the first Monday after Christmas.   Even though white is the color of the Christmas season, today’s liturgical color is read.  Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents.  What could that refer to, you might ask.  This feast day refers back to the days surrounding Jesus’ birth, when King Herod became fearful of this Prince of Peace and King of the Jews who would be born.  Herod had already killed family members out of fear and spite.  Herod knew that astrologers from the East were seeking this child, that the Hebrew Scriptures predicted that he would be born in Bethlehem.  The astrologers refused to report back to Herod after they had found the child, knowing that he had ulterior motives.  Herod ordered a massacre of all male children both in Bethlehem two years old or less.  Whether this report is historically accurate or not, it is a reminder of the innocents who are still killed in our world today, in a world where euthanasia and abortion are seen as rights and feasible options.  We see all kinds of killings of innocents in the world today, of those persecuted because of their religion, of innocent victims killed in mass shootings or by suicide bombers, of genocide of innocent in places like the Middle East or Africa.  Perhaps the feast of the Holy Innocents is called to get our attention today.