Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us And The Holy Innocents

 Stand In The Gap With Us And The Holy Innocents 12/28/2023

Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed his wife, his brother, and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few.

Holy Innocents Day, also known as the Feast of the Holy Innocents, is commemorated on December 28 every year. On this day, the Catholic Church honors the first martyrs. These were the children of Israel killed by King Herod in his quest to find baby Jesus.

Isaiah 9 proclaims “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, among those who walked in the land of gloom, a light has shown.”

So, why, right in the very center of Christmas, are we commemorating this horrible atrocity?

Matthew 2:1-18 tells this story: Herod was “greatly troubled” when astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen.

They were told that the Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts, and warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. Jesus escaped to Egypt.

Herod murdered his own wife and preserved her corpse in honey. He had two of his own sons strangled to death. He routinely liquidated anyone suspected of disloyalty. He had a harem of five hundred women, a brood of illegitimate children, and a taste for the pages who served in his palace.