“Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: ‘A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children and would not be comforted, because they are not.’”
Herod, realizing that the Magi were moved more by a Babe in swaddling clothes rather than his own regality and power, flies into an insecure rage, unleashing hatred upon the lowliest and most vulnerable. Herod is, throughout the Scriptures, representative of the devil, and it is important to consider the depths to which this father of hate will go to extinguish love, even to the slaughter of children. However, it is a display of the unfathomable redemptive power of the Trinity that this act of repulsive hatred yields the sweetest of rewards for the victims upon whom Herod’s scepter descended, for by his hate he gives them a greater gift than any act of love that he may have thought to do, and each of these children stands mightily around the throne of the Great King. However, even something this horrifying and bloody is foreseen by God, who knows all the sufferings His people will endure, but with tender hand and loving heart uses these horrors to show love’s constant victory over hatred and malice. Look at the eternal victory of the infants, a few towns of babies are lauded with a grand festival every year for involuntarily defending Love Itself, whereas this tyrant that acts out of hate is a notorious name, honored by none. Ramah was a place in which Israelites and Jews gathered in their respective exiles, with some being killed and others sent away into exile, and here we see more of the same: The Holy Innocents are slaughtered, and the baby Jesus is carried away into Egypt. The cries of the deaths of the innocent lifted up to heaven, for Ramah means “high,” or, “aloft;” “the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth” (Genesis 4:10), with the lamentations of the mothers being heard by the compassionate ear of the Most High. He hears every cry, every sigh, every tear that runs in this exile, but the time will come when “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Apocalypse 21:4), and every wound, every blow, every mark upon the heart and body will be kissed, that it may be healed with love, for a parent’s kiss is what soothes the cries of the child. This is the consolation for those who suffer, the hearts of the mothers, the bodies of the children, your poor little heart, are all covered in wounds from the actions of the enemy and the poor love of our neighbor, but love is still at work, even in moments when it feels that there is nothing to be grasped, no victory present, no hope to which to cling. Always, always, believe in love. In the blackest horrors, the lowest lows, in exiles and violence, love is working, elevating the lowly, beaten, and suffering to a glorious place. Consider the victorious story of the Holy Innocents, that they may show in their bodies in the life to come the horrors that love overcame; so too is every trial in your life an opportunity for love to show its might: “love is strong as death” (Song 8:6). When the evening of life fades, the love poem that is your life will be open for all to see, and the hymn of love’s victory will be upon the lips of all who look at it. Join these Holy Innocents in singing the triumphant song through all suffering, no matter how grave! For affliction is the storm that beats upon the rock of love, unable to move your house from its strong foundation on Christ: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).