This feast recalls the slaying of the children under the age of two years by King Herod and which is recounted in St Matthew’s Gospel. They are venerated as martyrs not simply because they died for Christ but because they died instead of him.
1 John 1:5-2:2; Psalm 123; Matthew 2:13-18
In our first reading, St John calls on us to live as children of the light always doing what is right and good. He also reminds us that – if we do go astray – the Lord will be our advocate and will return us to union with God. Our gospel passage today recounts the flight into Egypt of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and of the slaying of the Innocents by Herod in his attempt to kill the newborn king and so secure his own throne. The Holy Innocents gave their lives for Christ that he might live reminding us of the presence and power of the forces of darkness in our world. We are called on to believe in God even to the point of dying for him.
In our first reading, St John calls on us to live as children of the light always doing what is right and good. He also reminds us that – if we do go astray – the Lord will be our advocate and will return us to union with God. Our gospel passage today recounts the flight into Egypt of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and of the slaying of the Innocents by Herod in his attempt to kill the newborn king and so secure his own throne. The Holy Innocents gave their lives for Christ that he might live reminding us of the presence and power of the forces of darkness in our world. We are called on to believe in God even to the point of dying for him.