Feast of the Holy Innocents

Mass for Inverclyde Society of the Innocents

We continue our celebration of Christmas with the feast of the Holy Innocents, those boy-children of Bethlehem who were murdered on the orders of King Herod as his soldiers conducted a futile search for the baby Jesus, whom he wanted to eliminate as a possible rival to his throne. These little boys are honoured by the Church as martyrs because, even though they did not know it, their unlawful killing gave witness to the baby Jesus as the “infant King of the Jews”, as the Magi called him.

This would not be the last time the title “King of the Jews” would be used to justify the killing of Jesus. Pontius Pilate had the title “king of the Jews” nailed to Jesus’ cross. Pilate, as had Herod before him, thought Jesus’ kingship was a matter of a competing earthly power, and so they both wanted to kill him. But the message of Bethlehem and the message of Calvary are one and the same: Jesus rules by love, by lowliness and by gentleness. His kingdom is a kingdom of love. Jesus, the Emmanuel, God-with-us, came into the world to inaugurate that kingdom. We must become like little children in our faith and trust and innocence of heart to gain entry to that kingdom. We can be sure that the Holy Innocents are fully in possession of that kingdom from their place in heaven. We ask for their prayers and intercession.

For us, the Feast of the Holy Innocents has also become a powerful symbol for the millions of unborn babies whose lives have been terminated by the sinful practice of abortion. And like the Holy Innocents of the Gospel who were torn from the arms of their mothers and murdered before their eyes, legalised abortion is a state-sponsored massacre of the holy innocents of our times in the wombs of their mothers.

The Holy Innocents teach us that when people subordinate the sacredness of human life to their own aspirations and desires, children and women are the first to suffer. Women are expected to embrace the right to choose abortion because it supposedly gives them freedom. Instead this right kills their unborn babies, torments their minds with guilt, and, as studies are beginning to show, undermines the solidarity of the sexes in their common responsibility for the birth of children. In the words of one commentator, elective abortion, the right to choose, means that the finger of blame can be pointed at the woman alone because she has allowed an inconvenient human being to come into the world. And so, against her deepest instincts, the woman chooses to suppress the life of her unborn child to suit the needs of others. Sadly the right to choose tends to make abortion not voluntary but involuntary, for women under pressure begin to feel that they must choose to abort their pregnancy. Women, the other victims of abortion, are isolated, not liberated, by the right to choose.

More than 7,000,000 unborn babies have been killed in this country since abortion was made legal in 1967. It is said often that people are horrified by these numbers and that they would support laws which would lower the upper limit at which a termination would be legal. However, it is hard to verify if this sense of horror is real because our politicians and lawmakers are stuck in the sexual liberation battles of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and they will not allow it to be tested. The right to choose abortion is the flagship of the sexual revolution, and the message from our leaders is that that freedom will in no way be compromised, not even if it kills unborn babies and not even if the public is uneasy about how many abortions are carried out in this country.

I would like to be able to say to you that this situation is likely to change soon, but I cannot say that. In this context, the work of the Society of the Innocents and other similar organisations which defend and protect the lives of unborn children is essential to our society as a witness to the sacredness of unborn human life. It is most important also that the pro-life message is brought to young people who, thanks to amazing advances in imaging technology, seem receptive to the message that the developing embryo is fully human from conception, and they are disturbed that such wanton destruction can be visited on unborn human life by medical professionals who carry out legalized abortion. On behalf of the Church, I want to thank the Innocents and other pro-life organisations for your witness to the sacredness of unborn human life, for your support for women, and for your efforts to educate the young.

The feast of the Nativity of the Lord is always a source of new hope for those who believe in Jesus because He is the Emmanuel, God-with-us. As we adore the baby Jesus, born of Mary, we humbly ask his pardon on behalf of our contemporaries for the sin of abortion; trustingly we commend the souls of these innocent ones to his care; and we ask prayerfully for his help to continue to hope and work for a change of heart in human beings so that the right to life of unborn children will be protected and respected.

St. Ninian’s, Gourock

28th December 2009.