The Holy Innocents

 

Matthew 2:16-18

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”

This tragic event has been a source of distress and consternation from the earliest days of the church. It is not really talked about in evangelical circles, and I confess that in all my years as a pastor, I don’t believe I ever addressed it. It is commemorated in liturgical churches every year as The Feast of the Holy Innocents. I will let them explain it:

“The Feast of the Holy Innocents, or Childermas in Old English, commemorates the death of male children in Bethlehem who were two years of age or under. King Herod the Great had ordered this, in order to ensure that the infant Messiah sought by the Magi would be unable to displace him on his throne. This is why Joseph was told in a dream to take the Child and the Blessed Virgin and flee to Egypt to escape the persecution of King Herod.” (Holy Innocents EWTN)

What is the meaning of the “Holy Innocents”?

“The young boys killed by Herod were innocent of any crime, except the imagined crime of being potential usurpers of Herod’s throne. They are acknowledged as “holy” by the Church because of the holy circumstances of their death. They died in hatred of Christ, as martyrs do, and thus the liturgical color of the day is red.” (Holy Innocents EWTN)

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran Churches observe it on December 28, the Orthodox on December 29, the Syrians and Chaldeans on December 27. These dates have nothing to do with the chronological order of the event; the feast is kept within the 12 Days of Christmas because the Holy Innocents gave their life for the newborn Saviour. These first flowers of the Church accompany the Holy Child Jesus entering this world on Christmas day. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

From a Homily¹ of St. Augustine (AD 354 – 430) On the Feast of the Holy Innocents

“Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday² of those children who were slaughtered, as the Gospel tells us, by that exceedingly cruel king, Herod. Let the earth, therefore, rejoice and the Church exult — she, the fruitful mother of so many heavenly champions and of such glorious virtues. Never, in fact, would that impious tyrant have been able to benefit these children by the sweetest kindness as much as he has done by his hatred. For as today’s feast reveals, in the measure with which malice in all its fury was poured out upon the holy children, did heaven’s blessing stream down upon them.

“Blessed are you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah! You suffered the inhumanity of King Herod in the murder of your babes and thereby have become worthy to offer to the Lord a pure host of infants. In full right do we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers’ womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present. The precious death of any martyr deserves high praise because of his heroic confession; the death of these children is precious in the sight of God because of the beatitude they gained so quickly. For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod’s cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers’ bosom, are justly hailed as “infant martyr flowers”; they were the Church’s first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.”

(You can read the article here)

The Catholic Collect³ for the Feast of the Holy Innocents is: 

"O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in your love which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.” Amen.

 

NEXT: Herod 

¹ A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture

² In the early church your birthday was the day you died and entered heaven

³ “A collect is simply a prayer meant to combine the people’s intentions and the focus of worship into a succinct prayer. All of the collects more or less fit a pattern that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer developed in the first Book of Common Prayer (1549). The form of collects is quite simple:

First, there is an address to God and to his character or actions in the world on our behalf.

Second, there is a request.

Third, there is an invocation and doxology.

Finally, there is the Amen.”   (https://anglicancompass.com/the-collects/)