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During this octave of Christmas the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of his enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Christmas Reflection: Feast of the Holy Innocents: Out of the Mouth of Infants
1. 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" (Matt. 19:14).

2. Christ, indeed, has enemies. "He was in the world, ... and the world knew Him not" (John 1:10). "Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel" (Luke 2:34). The enemy (Herod) already lurks in Jerusalem nearby. 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" (John 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" (John 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.

3. 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" (John 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, however, now live and have communion with the glorified Christ. We, too, shall share this divine life if we share in His passion.
—Excerpted from The Light of the World, Volume One by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

The Holy Innocents
Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday 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.
—St. Augustine

Patronage: against ambition; against jealousy; altar servers; babies; children; children’s choir; choir boys; foundlings; students

Highlights and Things to Do:

• Today is also called Childermas Day. Read about the customs and traditions of this day, including the Feast of Fools and the Feast of the Boy Bishop.
• Read this article by Msgr. Luciano Alimandi on the humility of children.
• Read more about the Holy Innocents:
  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Golden Legend
  • Catholic Ireland
  • CNA
  • New Liturgical Movement
  • NCRegister
  • EWTN
  • CatholicSaints.info
• See the poem Holy Innocents by Christina Rossetti.

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