Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs. Many will no doubt draw parallels with the Holy Innocents of our age. So let’s stop and reflect together in two posts. If one were to accept the definition of personhood given by our Culture of Death, these Innocents barely qualified, as they had no real substantive accomplishments or contributions to society. But their deaths purposed their lives in ways greater than John the Baptist’s. Their slaughter, their collective sacrifice was the first public heralding of Jesus as the Messiah, the King of Kings. So terrified was Satan of this coming that he entered Herod’s heart and preyed on his vanity and fear, and sought the only remedy his rebellion against God will admit-Death.
The loss of so many in our day to abortion similarly is not a meaningless sacrifice. These Innocents too, in their collective sacrifice, act as heralds. Their sacrifice proclaims the sanctity of a single human life. The proclamation of that sanctity underscores the purpose of the Incarnation. The Messiah Himself tells us that He is the Good Shepherd who would leave the entire flock to seek out the one lost sheep. He tells us that there is more rejoicing in Heaven over one repentant sinner than there is over ninety-nine righteous men giving praise.
These innocents, though their lives have been short, thunder at us to regain our sanity, to reclaim our dignity, and in so doing realize their great potential. They are our advocates before the Father, their prayers especially for their mothers’ and fathers’ healing and wholeness. They echo Jesus’ prayer on the cross to forgive us, for we know not what we do. Most truly do not know.
On this feast, we do well to pray with and for those mothers and fathers, rejoicing with those who have come to embrace of the Gospel of Life and who now labor together in the pro-life movement. To hear a single witness has been the most profound experience for me. My prayerful best wishes this day to all mothers and fathers in Silent No More, Rachel’s Vineyard and all other related ministries. You have been towers of strength and inspiration for this one scientist. My decision to place my scientific career on a pro-life advocacy trajectory has been in no small measure the fruit of your witness. May God Bless You, and those parents whose similar embrace of the Gospel of life we pray is not too far distant.
A poem for today:
Upon the Infant Martyrs
by Richard Crashaw
To see both blended in one flood,
The mothers’ milk, the children’s blood,
Make me doubt if heaven will gather
Roses hence, or lilies rather.
And yet another poem for today, also by Crashaw:
To the Infant Martyrs
Go, smiling souls, your new-built cages break,
In heaven you’ll learn to sing, ere here to speak,
Nor let the milky fonts that bathe your thirst
Be your delay;
The place that calls you hence is, at the worst,
Milk all the way.
Beautiful poems A. Prof.
Grace-filled food for thought. Thank You.