Holy Innocents Feast – More Relevant Today
Today during this Christmas period, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents. Specifically we celebrate the martyrdom of infants who were slaughtered because Herod felt threatened and inconvenienced by Jesus’ birth. This event in history, we recall was a repeat of a similar situation a few centuries before that occurred in Egypt when Moses was born. We may have noticed that the former group is considered Saints by the Roman Catholic Church but not the latter. Why? The simple reason being that the former died for Christ whereas it isn’t the case for the latter.
Is this feast day merely a remembrance of just these thousands of Jewish infants and toddlers who died 2 millennia ago? Hardly, as it commemorates the group who were slaughtered during Moses’ period as well. And it doesn’t just include this group but all children who have been murdered throughout history.
When we celebrate this feast day, we ought to also remember other groups of God’s children who are being routinely being exterminated on a daily basis, by their parents, children and other loved ones. Let’s keep these people in our prayers as well everyday:
- Aborted children
- Euthanized children – because of unwanted gender, deformities and disabilities
- Euthanized adults
At times, those of us who are pro-life can feel we are in a losing battle. This can be true when exemplars of these battles are:
- The Democrat majority gain of Congress
- The Anglican Church hierarchy expressing possible support for euthanizing infants with disabilities
- European countries legalizing euthanasia of elderly and terminally ill patients
- Indians and Chinese practicing sex-selection abortion against female fetuses
But we should remember that as in all wars, battles are sometimes lost before the war is won. The above are merely battles in this war against abortion that have been lost and knowing God, he will be able to turn these losses into gains eventually. We just have to have faith in his mysterious ways. We should rejoice for the gains that have also been obtained for pro-life:
- Many Democrat Reps gained office because of their pro-life stance
- The UN Convention with an overall positive attitude on the right to life of Persons with Disabilities
- The closure of numerous Planned Parenthood abortion mills
- The revelation of clinical study from New Zealand pronouncing the negative link between abortion and clinical depression
Ultimately, Roe vs. Wade will be overturned and the culture of death will be defeated. The road to victory will be through fervent prayers and active opposition towards the abortion movement. Today, pro-choice invariably means choosing death for the unborn or the dying or the disabled. One day, in God’s time, pro-choice will come to mean pro-choice for life.
