In the midst of this celebratory sason, we honor and solemnly celebrate the Holy Innocents. One man could feel so insecure in his power that he was willing to kill all male babies under the age of two, just to stop the one, the newborn King, he learned the wise men were seeking.
While we can rejoice that he didn’t succeed, I find it hard not to be sad that things haven’t changed as much as you might think since the time of Herod.
Today, millions of innocents are still being slaughtered, now in their mothers’ wombs. Mothers, duped by the lie that their unborn children are just “blobs of tissue,” are deceived into having their babies killed. In other places, their babies are taken from them by force.
Thankfully, we know that we can put a stop to these horrors. We can, when we:
educate people about the sanctity of life.
create safe places for women to have and love their babies.
stop government funding of Planned Parenthood and UNFPA.
hold our representatives accountable for upholding and making permanent, pro-life laws and policies.
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Herod the Great “was distrustful, jealous, and brutal, ruthlessly crushing any potential opposition. The Jews never accepted him as their legitimate king, and this infuriated him.
He constantly feared conspiracy. He executed his wife when he suspected she was plotting against him. Three of his sons, another wife, and his mother-in-law met the same fate when they too were suspected of conspiracy.
Herod, trying to be a legitimate Jew, would not eat pork, but he freely murdered his [wives and] sons! Matthew’s account of Herod’s slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem fits well with what we know of the king’s ambition, paranoia, and cruelty (Matt. 2:1–18).”
Today we’re more sophisticated in “our” killing, employing specious pretexts in the service of raw global power
—World Vasectomy Day, “an act of love”
Catholic Critique 