Holy Innocents - Abortion

 

During the Jubilee Year 2000, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Holy Land. Though I had little money, I asked Our Blessed Mother if She would help me to go to the Land in which Jesus lived and walked. To my surprise, I was offered a free trip in exchange for being the spiritual director of a tour group. Wow! What an opportunity! While in Bethlehem, our group visited the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born. And since, our group was small, I wasn’t permitted to offer Mass at one of the main altars, but rather, on an altar in what is called St. Jerome’s cave. St. Jerome lived in a cave very close to the cave in which Jesus was born. There in his cave, he translated the entire bible from Greek into Latin. Because of the large size of the Church of the Nativity, it was built on top of the cave where Jesus was born and laid in a manger, but also built over the cave where St. Jerome lived. While offering Mass there, on the altar in the cave of St. Jerome, I decided to offer a Mass for an end to abortion. Just after the Mass, as our group was leaving, to my surprise, the tour guide pointed out to me, that just behind the place where I offered Mass, was the place where the Holy Innocents were originally buried. I was stunned! As I knelt down to pray before the burial site, I thought of all the children who have died at the time of Herod and all their parents who wept so bitterly over the death of their children. I thought of Herod, who wanted to kill the children---. I thought of abortionists, who kill unborn children today, and political leaders who promote the killing of the unborn, and push for embryonic stem cell research. It was a very somber moment.

It is believed that anywhere from 15 to 25 boys about the age of 2 years old, were killed by Herod’s soldiers. When the wise men had arrived from following the star, they met Herod. Because it was announced that Jesus would be king, Herod saw the newborn King, as a threat and so he immediately began a plot to kill him.

After the wise men had left from paying Jesus homage, an angel of the Lord warned Joseph in a dream to take the Child and His Mother into Egypt. Terror gripped the people of Bethlehem as soldiers arrived and sought to kill every boy, 2 yrs and younger. How horrible and shocking, to have children torn out of the arms of their mothers and killed right in front of the parents.

These Holy Innocents are considered martyrs, because they died directly for Christ, in place of Jesus, whom they intended to kill. Their feast is celebrated in the Octave of Christmas because they gave their life for the newborn savior.

Today, let us ask these Holy Innocent Martyrs, who died for Christ, to intercede for us. We pray that the Newborn Divine Infant Jesus, will touch the hearts and change the minds of doctors who perform abortions. And let us pray for those who have had an abortion, may they discover the infant mercy of Jesus and come to know God loves them.