Last updated on May 13, 2020
Herod the King / In his raging /
Charged he hath this day
His men of might / In his own sight / All children young to slay
Then woe is me / Poor child for thee / And ever mourn and say
For thy parting / Nor say nor sing / By-by, lullay, lulla
The haunting lines above are from The Coventry Carol, an English Christmas song that dates to the 16th century. Listen to it here. It does not speak of sleigh bells and tinsel but of rage and murder. It was written just for today, for December 28 is the traditional day in the Church calendar to remember an event known as the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents. This carol is a tune of mourning.
Here is the backstory. In Matthew chapter 2, we have the account of the Magi (Wise Men) from the East who come to Jerusalem looking for the newborn king of the Jews, heralded by the astral sign. They learn that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem and go there to worship Him. King Herod, in his consuming paranoia, could not allow a rival to live so he ordered all the male children around Bethlehem, two and under, to be put to the sword.
Herod the Great should be called Herod the Horrible. He murdered his sons and wife when he thought they conspired against him. The consummate politician, he feigned Jewish piety when it suited him. One observer quipped that it is safer to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son. It takes a special kind of evil to order the deaths of children. In our time, it takes a special kind of evil to perpetrate, condone, or ignore the holocaust of abortion.
In many respects, the world was, and still is, a dark and dangerous place. We are called to shine light to expose the deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:11). And this will make people uncomfortable. They will tell you to calm down. Don’t listen. False prophets cry “Peace, peace; when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14; Ezekiel 13:10)!” Abortion is not polite conversation, but politeness is often the way Satan masks his atrocities. Flannery O’Connor said that to the morally deaf we must shout.
Abortion is not like any other sin, just as murder is not like any other crime. Abortion is the taking of innocent human lives. Tens of millions of them, in our case. The horror is so tremendous that it is difficult to even think about. We become numb to it. All tyrants know this. Joseph Stalin said, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” We cannot comprehend the rivers of blood, so we learn to look to away.
Satan has a particular hatred for the natural family. He wants to kill children and desecrate marriage. This is because natural marriage and family depict the higher realities of Christ and His bride, the Church (Ephesians 5). Some theologians venture that natural marriage and family portray the communal nature of the Holy Trinity where each person gives Himself wholly to the others in love. John Paul II called this the nuptial meaning of the body, which is simply to say that our bodies, in their sexual natures, are clearly meant for another. We are designed to give ourselves in love to another and receive another in the same way. And this mutual self-giving generates life. It is no wonder that the Enemy of life would attack the family.
Our national obsession with abortion is diabolical to the core. Some politicians used to say abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Now they want it to be “safe, legal, free, and UNLIMITED.” Our leaders in Washington would make Herod blush.
An expansive pro-life ethic encompasses many issues, to be sure, and in other blog posts we will visit them. God’s people show mercy to refugees and prisoners and the poor, but on this day, the remembrance of the Holy Innocents, we particularly denounce all violence against children – beginning from the womb. This issue affects us all. Mother Teresa stated, “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” We live in a culture of death, yes, but we are witnesses to the Life that is the Light of men (John 1). Our Valiant One has conquered death for us. We now are defenders of helpless. Let us sing the Coventry Carol once again and do more than mourn; let us act.