Dec 28th - The Holy Innocents

Today I think it appropriate to call all innocents, "holy". Certainly we honor those who lost their lives to sin for merely being born in the wrong place at the wrong time, to quell a man's fear. The misery of their parents and family is incomprehensible to me and is beyond my ability to measure.
But are these not truths all the time? How many innocents die everyday because of someone's fear, or greed, or selfishness? How can we not imagine the pain and suffering endured everyday by children and their families? Families abandoned by weak or corrupt governments? Refugees driven by famine, pestilence, or war; those suffering from indifference, from neglect, from hatred - especially our own.
"It was then that the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loudly lamenting:
it was Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted because they were no more." (Matthew 2:17-18)
Let us pray for all the innocent: the unborn, the young, the abused, the marginalized, the poor, the elderly - all who suffer and innocently bear the burden of sin for and from the rest of us, who should know better. Let us pray that we will be forgiven for the things we have failed to do, for the innocent we have failed to protect.

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Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

-- Matthew 25:37-40