9781644135945

The Light of the World
December 28, Feast of the Holy Innocents
With St. Stephen and St. John the Apostle, the Holy Innocents today bear witness to the
newborn King. “Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings, O God, Thou hast perfected
praise, because of Thy enemies” (Introit). Children and those with the simplicity of children
are dear to the heart of Christ. “Suffer the little children and forbid them not to come to
Me” (Mt 19:14).
Christ, indeed, has enemies. “He was in the world, . . . and the world knew Him not” ( Jn 1:10).
“Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel” (Lk 2:34). The
enemy (Herod) already lurks in nearby Jerusalem. He is determined to destroy the child and
orders the brutal murder of the children of Bethlehem and its environs. Wherever Christ
is reproduced, in His Person, in His teaching, in His spirit and His commandments, in His
Church, and especially in His holy members, He finds contradiction and hatred. “If they have
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” ( Jn 15:20). Persecution is characteristic of true
Christianity; it is the mark of the Church and of the true Christian: “If you had been of the
world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” ( Jn 15:19).
Christ has many witnesses: the prophets, the angels, John the Baptist, the shepherds, the
star, the wise men of the East, the Holy Innocents. All of these are willing and joyful witnesses
of the Savior. Through their untimely death and the ceaseless wail of their distracted mothers,
the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem proclaim far and wide the birth of Him whom Herod sought
to kill. Of them Christ has said: “You shall be witnesses unto Me” (Acts 1:8). One must be
with Christ or against Him. One must be a witness to Him or an enemy to Him. There can be
no neutrality in the service of Christ.
Happy were the children of Bethlehem who were privileged to offer their lives for the persecuted
and despised Savior. They belong now to the multitude of the elect who have “His name and
the name of His Father written on their foreheads. . . . And they sung, as it were, a new canticle
before the throne and before the four living creatures. . . . These were purchased from among
men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth there was found no lie; for
they are without spot before the throne of God” (Epistle).
The devil could have conferred upon the Holy Innocents no greater favor than that accomplished
by his hatred of them. To live, to suffer, and to die for Christ and His cause, is not a
loss, but a privilege. “He that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal. If any man
minister to Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also shall My minister be” ( Jn 12:25 f.).
In the Offertory of the Mass the Holy Innocents represent us. At Mass we bring forward
all that we are and have — our life, our body and soul, and all our goods — and offer them
freely in witness to the divinity of Christ. We are indeed privileged to thus offer ourselves for
Christ; for through this offering and through the union of our life with His, we shall be freed
from the slavery of sin and of the flesh. For this reason we rejoice with the Holy Innocents in
the Offertory prayer: “Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers.
The snare is broken, and we are delivered.”
“A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her
children, and would not be comforted because they are not” (Communion). These children,
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