Homily For The Feast of Holy Innocents 2025
Today, we continue the Christmastide feast days celebrating the varied types of martyrdoms. December 26th is the feast of St. Stephen who was a martyr both in will and in deed. St. John whose feast day was December 27th was a martyr in will but NOT in deed. St. John was more than willing to die but God appointed that he should be the only Apostle of the 12 who did not die for his faith. He died in the faith (which we all should aspire to do) even if he was not killed for the faith by hateful men. Finally, the Holy Innocents,whose feast is today, are those young male toddlers and babies in Bethlehem, who weren’t martyrs in will but were so in deed. They couldn’t assent to belief in Jesus but were murdered all the same because of Herod’s genocide to try to destroy the Christ child.
The Reformed Episcopal Church has a long-standing resolution that calls for an end of abortion - “the slaughter of unborn innocents in the womb”. Clergy are called upon to preach on the evils of abortion on the Feast of the Holy Innocents or on Pro-Life Sunday. During my tenure at Holy Cross, I have made it a practice to condemn the evil of abortion on this feast day because it aligns so well with the narrative of the Gospel.
Our Gospel recalls a grim event in Israel’s history. The Magi came and asked Herod, “Where was the one born king of the Jews?” They travelled many miles through the most difficult of circumstances to worship the one whose birth was announced through the manifestation of a star. Herod responded by asking the scribes about where the Messiah would be born. The scribes told the Magi that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Herod gave the Magi, the wise men, instructions to tell him where they found the Messiah so that he might go and worship as well.
The Magi went and worshipped and were warned not to return to Herod. Herod soon realized that they were not coming back to court and he ordered all the boys in Bethlehem from 2 years of age and younger to be killed. He thought he had stopped God’s work through the Messiah, he had not thwarted God’s plan, for an angel warned Joseph to flee, and the Messiah along with the Holy Family, were in Egypt in safety. The boys of Bethlehem, who the Church has called the Holy Innocents died because of Jesus.
Herod believed he had by his decree accomplished his goal of eliminating his competition. Surely, the Messiah had been eliminated. Yet, isn’t God bigger than man’s ambitions, isn’t the providence of God greater than the sum of all the best laid schemes? Who can man harm whom God has appointed for a purpose? The royal son, the one who will inherit the throne, is always hated by the usurper, and all the powers of this earth are eager to be supreme.
What about the threat of one more powerful than Herod? Satan, the usurper of God’s good creation, has been eager to destroy the faithful; to cut off the faithful seed of Eve who would come to destroy Satan’s despotic reign. He tried to have the Jewish midwives abort the Jewish boys at birth; he then turned to genocide by casting them into the river. Moses survived and was even protected in Pharoah’s house. Now, the second greater Moses is born and Herod declares his own genocide but Jesus is safe from all harm. The spirit of genocide and abortion, the destruction of man made in the image of God, is the very evil heart of Satan.
Satan afflicts the mother along with the child. He destroys the child and the mother is left to lament. Our Gospel of St. Matthew ends with a rather cryptic reference, a prophecy of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 31:15 - we have the lament of Rachel for her children.
The prophet is applying this weeping of Rachel for her children to her descendents that were exiled by the Assyrians and the Babylonian in the 8th and 6th century, respectively. St. Matthew applies the same prophecy to the sadness of Israel’s young boys being destroyed: a mother’s lament. Rachel along with the mothers that gave birth directly to those boys lament. The community of Bethlehem laments.
Trauma accompanies murder, wrongful death. In the case of abortion, the taking of the child is through the consent of the mother. Sometimes that mother is assured this is the best thing for all concerned, but it is still death. There is a lifetime of lament, and trauma (perhaps unadmitted, perhaps subconscious) as the birthdays of the would-be borns roll through the years. There is a lingering pain of what might have been. I mention this because God is rich in mercy and grace. He wants healing for all of us sinners.
Our opposition to abortion must be wedded to a hearty invitation to those who have chosen to have abortions or have been coerced into having abortions to receive healing from Jesus. Our zeal for the unborn must extend in love to those who have sinned against the unborn, that all may be transformed. May we be conduits for healing and restoration. May we show love toward all who need the loving embrace of Jesus - whether the unborn or the mothers/fathers who are so tempted to despair of their circumstances, of their ability to raise a child, who despair of the prospect of forgiveness if they have had an abortion. Whatever the situation, beloved, let us oppose the destruction of human life and proclaim forgiveness and restored life and healing for all who turn to Jesus in faith. Let us pray for an end to abortion and the repentance of all who support the practice, including physicians and nurses. Let us have God’s heart in this matter. To that, I want to conclude this homily with a series of three prayers. Let us pray.
O ALMIGHTY God, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths; Mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith even unto death, we may glorify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Eternal Father, source of all mercy and love, out of love for us you sent your Son, and willed that blood and water flow from his side to cleanse us from our sins. Hear the cry of all who mourn the loss of a child through abortion. Forgive them their sins, restore them to your grace, and still the sorrows of their hearts, with a peace that passes all understanding. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Heavenly Father, God of life and light, we pray you would turn the hearts of all those in the medical community who support the practice of abortion. May the value of human life, of those made in your image overwhelm them and lead them to repentance, that this practice may cease in our land. Amen.
