Why bother remembering the Holy Innocents every year on the 28th of December? Why
spoil the Christmas season by bringing to mind such a horrendous episode? That's what
Monsignor Peter Fleetwood tells us: "...these young boys lost their lives because
somebody realised how powerful Jesus Christ really was: He didn't understand why Jesus
was powerful , or how he would eventually exercise that power, but he knew there was
something special about Jesus , and recognised there was not enough room in the kingdom
for both of them- or so he thought."...
That's the first reason says Father
Peter who also highlights the meaning of this feast for us today:"...It is important
to ask whose patron saints the Holy Innocents are. The answer is quite shocking .
This has become the day when Catholics in many countries remember innocent lives
that are destroyed in our own day because there is no room for them in our society,
This is the day when children whose lives were deliberately terminated before birth
are remembered . They had no choice.They could not defend themselves. It is good to
remember them on this day , but I cannot remember them without thinking of the women
who live with what must have been an excruciating decision. Never forget that....This
is also a day to remember the innocent victims of war, the thousands of children
who die every year because they do not have enough to eat, children who were born
with HIV-AIDS, those who have been killed because they were made to fight as soldiers....I
am sure we should remember other innocent people whose lives have been ruined , even
if they have not died ...refugees, far from their home country , just like Joseph
and Mary and the child Jesus. They are innocent but often hated and despised in the
countries were they eventully find refuge .."
While Father Peter concludes
by saying he doesn't wish to cast a shadow on Christmas , he also insists it is
worth remembering some people's experience of Christmas is totally different from
ours; don't ask "who were the Holy Innocents' but "who are they today ?" Listen
to this reflection by Monsignor Peter Fleetwood in a programme produced by Veronica
Scarisbrick: