Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Innocents, those young children and infants, mostly below the age of two years old, who in the Scriptures were mentioned as the victims of the greed and ego of mankind, being slaughtered mercilessly by the forces of King Herod the Great, the King of Judea at that time. This was done because King Herod was afraid of the threat that the newborn ‘King of the Jews’ prophesied by the prophets and messengers of God presented against him and his rule, and this made him to try to find ways to prevent this King from overcoming his and his family’s rule, and when things did not work out, he desperately launched that massacre against his own people.
For the context, we must first understand that historically, the rule of King Herod was far from secure in the beginning of his reign, and while after decades of rule he had managed to secure the kingdom that he had established and been patronised for by the Romans, who was the overlord of the region, King Herod would always be seen as a usurper to the rightful rulers of the land, firstly as he rose to power on the coattails of the Romans who came and conquered the region, and through manipulations and trickery, and political plays, he managed to gain the throne and kingship over the land. He was also not a member of the House of David, which historically had held the Kingship over Israel, and lastly, he was an Idumaean, hailing from a people neighbouring the Israelites, and hence, was not considered by some as true legitimate King.
That was part of the reason why King Herod the Great was often seen as insecure in his reign and way of ruling, and in his megalomania and often overly ambitious projects, which he made in order to secure that legitimacy over the ruling of the land of Israel and the people of God. He built the great Temple in Jerusalem, greatly expanding the previous Second Temple there likely to win over the support from the Jewish community and from their chief priests and elders. He built the great city of Caesarea, a great port city and trading centre, and naming it after Caesar, the Emperor Augustus in Rome, as an obvious effort to try to win and maintain the support of the Romans, without which he could not have secured his rule and the rule for his family and dynasty. He had many other projects and works designed to show his greatness to the people.
And all of these likely led to King Herod the Great being increasingly insecure, paranoid and ambitious, as the more we depend on worldly means, powers and all those means in order to achieve our objectives and goals, the more it is that we may become dependent on them. And that was what happened to King Herod the Great, as well as many other worldly rulers and all those who have allowed their desires, ambitions, pride and ego to mislead them down the path of ruin. To King Herod, he was certainly unwilling to let go everything that he had spent his whole life building up, all the great things that he had supposedly achieved, and hence, this led him to the desperate actions and wicked things such as the slaughter of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem just as we all heard in our Gospel passage today.
In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle, we heard of the Apostle writing to the people of God regarding the matter of sin, and how the faithful ought to respond and act with regards to the sins which they had all committed. And we heard of the power of God in healing us all from our many sins and wickedness, and how He has sent us all His Son to be the One to intercede for us and deliver us the salvation of God. St. John also spoke about the need for the people of God not to be deluded to think that they had no sin or shortcomings, or have no need for God’s help and forgiveness. For this is the problem which many of the people of the time of St. John in the early Church had faced, as we still face the same issue even to our present day.
There are people who claim to be righteous, just and worthy of God, and took great pride in that status, like for examples the chief priests and the Pharisees among the Jewish people, and also others in the Christian community who considered themselves to be righteous and better spiritually and in the path towards God’s salvation than others. They underestimated the dangers of sin and even became desensitised to it. This is what we cannot let to happen to us as well, and we must first of all realise that we are sinners, in need of God’s help, and as we have seen from the examples of the past life and actions of King Herod and many other historical figures, we can easily be distracted and tempted by the many desires and pressures, expectations and ambitions that we have in our hearts.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, some of us may be wondering why is it that God permitted such atrocities to happen such as what happened in the massacre of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, as well as in many other dark moments in our human history. Some of us certainly would have criticised the Lord, thinking that God could have intervened and stopped all those atrocities and evils from happening. But this is where we have to understand and realise that God has given us the free will and the freedom to choose our course of action in life. The many sufferings that we often suffer from and encounter in this world, they all came from our abuse of our privileges, freedom and choices, as instead of choosing the better and righteous path, we often chose the path of pleasure and corruption, allowing sin and the temptations for it to mislead us down this path of destruction and ruin.
That is why, while all of us commemorate this Feast of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, we are reminded that we must continue to be vigilant so that we do not easily end up falling into the temptations to sin and to give in to our fears, our desires and ambitions, our pursuits for worldly glory and renown, just as King Herod had experienced. For all the efforts that he had done, ultimately Herod’s legacy was a failure, with the grand Temple he built being destroyed merely decades later, and other great monuments abandoned and destroyed, while his family’s rule over the lands of his kingdom did not last very long, and what remained for him is the everlasting reminder of this great atrocity that he ordered at Bethlehem. This is a reminder for us not to allow ourselves to walk in the same path he traversed.
Let us all as Christians instead be the courageous bearers of our faith before all, standing up firmly for the sake of the poor, the less privileged and the weak, striving not for our own selfish desires and ambitions, but rather for the common good of all. We must be good role models and inspirations for one another in upholding the truth and justice of God. May the Lord continue to help us to remain firmly focused on Him, and to be truly committed to a life of virtue and compassionate care for others as we continue to progress through this joyful season of Christmas, and share our Christmas joy to everyone around us, resisting the temptations of pleasure and hedonism, and striving instead to seek the true heavenly treasure that can be found in God alone. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 