Unto us a child is born

Not just for December 25th

This quote from Isaiah 9:6 (King James Version), although written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, is, of course, the theme of Christmas. Beyond the season of Christmas, we should keep this sentiment in our hearts all year long. The Church recognizes an Octave of Christmas, beginning on Christmas Day, and ending on January 1st, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God.

Within this Octave occur the Saint’s days for Stephen (the first martyr), John the Evangelist, and Thomas Becket. The fourth day of the Octave is devoted to the Feast of the Holy Innocents—those boys from Bethlehem, two years of age and younger, who were killed at the orders of King Herod, who feared that one of them would become a powerful rival for his throne—a newborn King of the Jews.

Killing rivals was nothing new for Herod, who murdered several of his own family members, prompting the Roman emperor Augustus to remark, “It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” Indeed, since as a Jew, Herod would never slaughter or eat a pig.

By rational human analysis, St. Stephen—a deacon in the early Church, who upset the Jewish religious authorities with his teachings, and was stoned to death—is named the protomartyr or first martyr of the Church. However, these Holy Innocents surely died before Stephen, and even though they didn’t do anything positive or negative, are still regarded as martyrs.

In the Feast of the Holy Innocents, we are forced to acknowledge a Divine, rather than human calculus. No doubt, much occurs in this world that is performed every single day by people who are not recognized as “important.” And, millions of innocent lives are sacrificed each year on the Satanic altar of abortion.

When one considers that purging the then small town of Bethlehem of boys two years of age and younger might have accounted for a few dozen deaths, and that this atrocity merits its own feast day, words hardly exist to adequately describe our contemporary slaughter of the innocents.

This Christmas, though, in the wake of the recent election, we see the epic defeat of the political party that raised up abortion as its key issue. Given how supposedly divided the country is on this matter, for a party to choose that hill to die on makes as much sense as Rachel Zegler—and other Hollywood idiots—thinking nothing of turning off at least half of their potential audience. Never mind the morality.

But, there is no logic here, any more than it makes sense for old women—long past the age of childbearing—to march on behalf of abortion “rights.” What dog do THEY have in that fight? Ah, but their motivation—just like Zegler’s—is simply hatred. In the case of the older marchers, it is hatred of their own lives, and what they “might have been,” but for the burden of children. In Zegler’s case it is a sort of ignorant hatred, brought on by mindlessly accepting the rubrics of her own sick industry.

As we await the coming of 2025, let us conclude with one of the most uplifting passages in the entire Bible (Isaiah 62:1-4):

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep still,
Until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her salvation like a burning torch.
Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
You shall be called by a new name
bestowed by the mouth of the Lord.
You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
No more shall you be called “Forsaken,”
nor your land called “Desolate,”
But you shall be called “My Delight is in her,”
and your land “Espoused.”
For the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be espoused.