Feast of the Holy Innocents

 

On December 28 we celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents, those children who were killed upon Herod's order in his mad search for Jesus.  These children were used as pawns in a political game.  The king (really tretrarch) cared nothing for the lives that were being taken.  These children and babies were powerless and in the eyes of Herod expendable.  All he cared about was holding on to power.  Little did he understand that the Babe born in Bethlehem had no interest in Herod's thrown, but instead wanted to sanctify his soul.

Today we are asked to reflect on how innocence is destroyed now.  The Church points us to the scourge of abortion, where innocent life is taken in the womb.   I'm generally not hard on the women who seek out this evil, because my experience is that there is often pressure, confusion and desperation surrounding the decision to destroy their baby.  No, I reserve my barbs for the doctors who mock their Hippocratic Oath for profit.  I point to politicians who, like Herod, try to hold on to their power by promoting the culture of death, in their case by claiming to protect women.  I condemn organizations and lobbyists that also provide or promote abortion, usually for profit, and also try to spread this evil abroad, either through U.S. foreign policy initiatives or through U.N. agencies.

But abortion is not the only way innocence is being destroyed today.  Human trafficking, that supplies both slave labor and sex workers, exploits millions of children every year.  Crime gangs, both here and abroad, recruit children, sometimes younger than ten years old, and use them in criminal acts, even murder.  One reason gangs here use them is that if they are caught their sentences will be lighter, and it potentially shields the adults from prosecution.  Children are also used as soldiers, drug runners and bag "men."  Do I have to mention child pornography and prostitution or child labor?

There are even more subtle ways in which children are exploited and their innocence robbed.  I can remember back in the late 70's or early 80's an article appearing in the New York Daily News asking if kids were being forced to grow up too soon in the way they were being targeted by clothing advertisers.  At that time the designer jean craze was sweeping the country, with an accent on a tight fitting "sexy" look, that was even being marketed to 12 or 13 year olds.  Thirty years on we are still asking those questions, though the problem has certainly gotten worse.  The popular culture has become even more sexually saturated, with young people feeling the pressure to be active, and many adults who seem content to let it be, as long as they are "safe" about it.  Meanwhile these youths are often "old" and cynical before their time, robbed of a phase of life that should be filled with wonder and discovery.

Divorced couples can sometimes use their children, even unintentionally, as players in a power game to get back at their estranged spouse.  I've seen it many times in my years as a teacher in high school and camp counselor.  Sometimes the son or daughter is able to persevere the best they can, other times they act out and make their hurt known in other ways.  But always there are effects, there are scars.

We remember today those Holy Innocents.  We are reminded that today their suffering is over, and they wear the crown of victory won for them by the Blood of Christ.  But let us also keep in mind that there are children in the world who suffer still, because of selfishness, greed and envy.  May we now and always live and promote the Gospel of Life, the Gospel of Innocence.