December 28: Holy Innocents

The Collect of the Day

Holy Innocents

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Holy Innocents

We remember this day, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by the order of King Herod. Receive, we beseech thee, into the arms of thy mercy all innocent victims; and by thy great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish thy rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jeremiah 31:15-17 or Jeremiah 31:15–17
Psalm 124
Revelation 21:1-7 or Revelation 21:1–7
Matthew 2:13-18 or Matthew 2:13–18

Herod the Great, ruler of the Jews, appointed by the Romans in 40 BCE, kept the peace in Palestine for 37 years. His ruthless control, coupled with genuine ability, has been recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus, who describes him as “a man of great barbarity towards everyone.” An Idumaean, married to the daughter of Hyrcanus, the last legal Hasmonean ruler, Herod was continuallyin fear of losing his throne. It is not surprising that the Magi’s report of the birth of an infant King of the Jews (Matthew 2) would have caused him fear and anger. Although the event is not recorded in secular history, the story of the massacre of the Innocents would have been in keeping with what is known of Herod’s character.

To protect himself against being supplanted by an infant king, Herod ordered the slaughter of all male children under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding region. From antiquity, the church has consistently honored these innocent children as martyrs, even though they were quite obviously not Christians, because they were killed by one who was seeking to destroy Christ. Augustine of Hippo called them “buds, killed by the frost of persecution the moment they showed themselves.”

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

¹If the Lord had not been on our side, *let Israel now say;

²If the Lord had not been on our side, *when enemies rose up against us;

³Then would they have swallowed us up alive *in their fierce anger toward us;

⁴Then would the waters have overwhelmed us *and the torrent gone over us;

⁵Then would the raging waters *have gone right over us.

⁶Blessed be the Lord! *he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.

⁷We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; *the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

⁸Our help is in the Name of the Lord, *the maker of heaven and earth.

Epistle

Gospel

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; ⁴he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” ⁵And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. ⁷Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.