Feast of the Holy Innocents

"Dearly beloved, today we keep the birth of these children, who, as we are informed by the Gospel were put to death by cruel King Herod. Therefore let earth rejoice with exceeding joy, for she is the fruitful mother of this great host of heavenly soldiers. The favour of vile Herod could never have done such service to these blessed ones as hath his hatred. For the Church testifieth by this holy solemnity, that whereas iniquity did specially abound against these little Saints, so much the more were heavenly blessings poured out upon them.

Blessed art thou, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, which hath suffered the cruelty of King Herod in the slaughter of thy children. For thou wast found worthy to offer to God, and that all at one time, an entire white-robed army of guileless Martyrs. Surely we do well to keep this day whereon they were borne from earth into heaven, which is so much more blessed to them than the day that brought them out of their mother's womb. Scarcely had they entered on the life that now is, than they obtained that glorious life which is to come.

We esteem as precious the death of those Martyrs who have deserved praise for the confession which they made during their lifetime ; but these little Martyrs delight us by their death-time alone. Scarcely had life dawned upon them, when the very destruction which brought it to a close became for them the beginning of glory. They, whom the wickedness of Herod tore from their mothers' breasts, are rightly called the Flowers of the Martyrs. Hardly had these early buds of the Church pushed above the ground in the winter of unbelief, than the frost of persecution destroyed them."
 
-- From a sermon by St Augustine

Feast of the Holy Innocents

"A tiny child is born, who is the great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.

Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.

You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers or fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong your own life though you are seeking to kill Life himself.

Yet your throne is threatened by the source of grace - so small, yet so great - who is lying in the manger. He is using you, all unaware of it, to work out his own purposes freeing souls from captivity to the devil. He has taken up the sons of the enemy into the ranks of God's adopted children.

The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the savior already working salvation.

But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.

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. The cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory."
 
-- From a sermon by St Quodvultdeus
 
** The painting is by Giotto