Today is the Feast of The Holy Innocents. It is the day when those that use the liturgical calendar, remember the innocent children who were slain by King Herod in his urge to kill the child Jesus, whose birth he had been told about by the visiting Magi.
The Massacre of the Innocents By Rubens
They have come to represent the voiceless, the feeble, the baby, the truly helpless who through no fault of their own, become the victims of a world that treats people as collateral damage. the sacrifice of the innocent in order to gain the greater good. the victims of vengeful maniacs, whose whole life is fixated with the maintenance of power at any cost.
Everyday is a day when the innocents are slain. As a child dies every 6 seconds from a preventable disease, I am reminded of a system that allows such moral pollution to corrupt the very fabric of my life. I am reminded that here in the UK child poverty is on the increase and will continue to exhort a heavy toll on the future of our country as the current government penalizes the poor in the name of financial responsibility and protecting the rich.
I am reminded that not all anger is sin. As I feel the heat of hatred for injustice add fuel to the fire of the love I know Christ has for me. That Jesus calls his Church to be the voice of the voiceless, the shield of the innocent and the sword of justice in the fight to preserve the dignity of all life.
I am reminded of all the work that the nameless and faceless of our world do to preserve a future for our children and their children. And I hear the silence in heaven of the lost voices, the missing contributions, the suppression of genius and uniqueness as another child is massacred, is starved or dies of neglect.
The challenge to the Church now in the face of the unfettered favoritism for the rich and powerful, by their servants in Westminster is ‘What kind of vision do we have as the Body of Christ? What kind of future do we hold out for? What is our vision for Britain? If we stand aside and allow the political elite to shape the future, there will be no change.
I am reminded of the self-sacrificing God we serve, born in vulnerable innocence, died an innocent and rose to open the gates of heaven to all those who are innocent. This is the paradigm of change I must rediscover so I can continue to discover my humanity in Christ.
