Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents, the earliest martyrs for the Church. These innocents were the young male infants of the town of Bethlehem who were killed by order of King Herod the Great of Judea in his futile effort to try to destroy the coming Messiah and King. The event is recorded in the Sacred Scriptures and was prophesied in the Old Testament. The Holy Innocents were the victims of human greed, ego, and pride, the outcome of man’s attachment to worldly glory and the temptations of the world.
I am sure that some of us may have wondered, why would God allow those infants in Bethlehem to be killed? Surely, he could have intervened and prevented the killings. But this is where we need to understand that the cause of this sad tragedy is our attachments to sin and our refusal to obey God’s will.
God gives each of us free will and the wisdom to discern His will. Yet, by our own conscious choices and abuses of our freedom, we frequently chose to be selfish and to entertain the wicked temptations that Satan puts in our path, as obstacles in our way towards the Lord.
Throughout the history of mankind, there have been countless occasions when people suffered because of the tyranny of those who had power, glory, prestige, and superiority over them. King Herod the Great was the founder of the Herodian dynasty of kings who would rule Judea, Galilee, and parts of southern Syria. These areas had just come under the rule and domination of the mighty Roman Empire. King Herod took control of Judea from the previous native Jewish dynasty of the Hasmoneans, descendants of the Maccabees, who were the ones that won the independence for Judea from another foreign rule, as written in the Books of the Maccabees. King Herod took power by deceit and with support from the Romans, who made Herod a client king. He had some authority and autonomy over Judea, but ultimately had to submit to the Romans. Herod himself was not a Jew, but an Idumean.
Herod, therefore, was insecure in his power over his kingdom. The news of the coming of a King, from among the Jewish people, was very bad news for him. As a foreigner ruling as king over the Jewish population, the news the Three Wise Men brought about the King born in Bethlehem threw him into a fearful panic. Bethlehem, after all, was in the territory of HIS kingdom.
This is why, combined with Herod’s own megalomania and love of grandeur (he is well known for his many huge building projects, including a vast expansion of the Temple of Jerusalem and a building named after himself, the Herodium), it would be natural for Herod to want the King of Kings to be killed as a rival to his power and authority. Yet, we have to understand that he clearly had a choice in this matter. He had it within his free will and choice not to do what was so abominable and wicked as killing innocent children, but he chose to do it anyway. We, our society, makes that choice too, even to the point of killing innocent children not yet born! Why?
It is because of his (and our) selfishness, his inability to detach himself from his pride and ego, and his greed for power. He did not want to allow a rival King to emerge, someone who might snatch his kingdom, power, and glory away from him. And unfortunately, this was the same reason why many of us, throughout history, have done evil things and caused untold sufferings and pains for countless others.
Therefore, today as we celebrate this feast of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, all of us are called to reflect on our vulnerabilities to the temptations of pride and greed in our own lives, and how we can fall deep into the trap of sin, should we indulge ourselves in them as Herod had done. Unless we consciously choose to resist those temptations, it is likely that we will cause sufferings and pains to others just as king Herod had done to the families of the innocent infants of Bethlehem.
During this blessed Christmas season, are we able to devote ourselves to God with a new strength and zeal? Are we willing to resist the pull and the temptation of worldly desires and rid ourselves of the pride and ego within our hearts and minds? Let us all instead turn towards God and follow the selfless example of Christ in everything we say, act, and do, so that from now on, we are no longer living in sin, but are living in the grace of God.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!