The Feast of The Holy Innocents

Today we commemorate the Holy Innocents.

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Holy Innocents’ Day, kept on December 28, remembers the young children of Bethlehem who were slain at the order of King Herod after the visit of the Magi. Fearing the loss of his throne to the newborn “King of the Jews,” Herod ordered the massacre of all male children under two years old in and around Bethlehem—a deed consistent with his cruelty as described by historians. Though these children were not disciples of Christ in life, the Church has honored them from antiquity as the first martyrs, for they died in place of the one Herod sought to destroy. St. Augustine movingly called them “buds, killed by the frost of persecution the moment they showed themselves,” recognizing their innocence and their place in God’s eternal kingdom. Their feast invites the faithful to remember the cost of human pride and fear, and to trust in the God who brings life even out of suffering and death. #Episcopal

First Lesson: Jeremiah 31:15-17

¹⁵Thus 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. ¹⁶Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord: they shall come back from the land of the enemy; ¹⁷there is hope for your future, says the Lord: your children shall come back to their own country.

Gospel: Matthew 2:13-18

¹³Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”