According to the Gospel of Matthew the Holy Innocents, children two years old and under were massacred by King Herod the Great. Herod felt his power was in danger by the birth of a Saviour and as in every time, fear of the loss of power leads to war and death.

The Incarnation of a God who is love awakens in us an urgency to rethink our power choices that bring pain and suffering to innocent people.

Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.
(Jer 31: 15)

 The Feast of Holy Innocents has been observed in the Western Church since the 4th century. The innocent children died in place of Christ.

 In recalling the birth of the Saviour and the slaughter of innocent children that followed this announcement, Pope Francis on Christmas Day 2023, asks “How many innocents are being slaughtered in our world?”

The Pope continues:
To say “yes” to the Prince of Peace, then, means saying “no” to war, to every war and to do so with courage, to the very mindset of war, an aimless voyage, a defeat without victors, an inexcusable folly. Today, as at the time of Herod, the evil that opposes God’s light hatches its plots in the shadows of hypocrisy and concealment. How much violence and killing takes place amid deafening silence, unbeknownst to many!

On the Feast of the Holy Innocents, 2024 we raise our voices in condemnation of the agents of war and destruction, and in defence of innocent people without a voice in the kingdoms of power and wealth, we pray:

O Child of Bethlehem as we behold the star in the East may we follow the Light of peace and hope in our common search for a human vision of love and communion for all the world.