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They came for the babies…

By: heartlander (Diary)  |  December 28th, 2010 at 06:35 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, today, December 28, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, commemorating the babies killed by King Herod in his jealous rage to eliminate Jesus, the newborn King.

Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few.

Matthew 2:1-18 tells this story: Herod was “greatly troubled” when astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen. They were told that the Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts and, warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. Jesus escaped to Egypt.

Herod became furious and “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” The horror of the massacre and the devastation of the mothers and fathers led Matthew to quote Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah,/sobbing and loud lamentation;/Rachel weeping for her children…” (Matthew 2:18). Rachel was the wife of Jacob/Israel. She is pictured as weeping at the place where the Israelites were herded together by the conquering Assyrians for their march into captivity.

Many historians and Biblical scholars think there may have been “only” a few dozen infants and toddlers killed.

The Holy Innocents are few, in comparison to the genocide and abortion of our day. But even if there had been only one, we recognize the greatest treasure God put on the earth—a human person, destined for eternity and graced by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

What does all this say about our own country, where more than 3,300 babies are killed by abortion every day?

What drives us to go on a Herod-like rampage?

Are we, like Herod, afraid that this new King — who is Love — might remove us from our self-made thrones?

Cross-posted at West to the West Wing 2012

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  • Read Chesterton

    Imagine… they died in Christ’s stead, and never knew Christ in this life. It’s been cause for theological debate from the beginning of Christianity. As the article below points out… though we teach that these babies went straight to heaven… this proves nothing on the the theology of salvation… it only gives us hope. But this is quite enough.

    Hope From the Holy Innocents at CatholicCulture.Org

    I commend CatholicCulture.Org to all who seek a solid conservatively based source for Catholic news and opinion. I never let a day go by without it.

    • http://westforwestwing2012.com heartlander

      …for the point you make, and for the link.

      Indeed, the Church has long considered these babes the first martyrs, since they died for Jesus’ sake.

      Another thing non-Catholics may not realize is that even when we honor martyrs, who die violent deaths, we do not have a “memorial” or “commemoration,” but a FEAST. Why is that? Because we CELEBRATE the entry of their souls into heaven. The feast day of a saint is not on their birthday, but on the day they died, because THAT is the day of their birth into eternal life, their first day in HEAVEN.

      Thank you, also, Read Chesterton, for the link to CatholicCulture.org. It is a wonderful website and a great resource. I’m glad you reminded me of it. I’m going to add it to my blogroll!

    • melissatx

      I am not Catholic, but do subscribe to CFAM.org and get their newsletter/email. Informative.

      I do have one question though: everyone I know that IS Catholic voted for Obama and I don’t get that. It is like the Jews voting for Obama, can’t they see he is not their friend, for the reasons above and MORE?

      Grrrrrrrr.

      • http://westforwestwing2012.com heartlander

        As I see it (as a Catholic myself), here are some reasons Catholics vote(d) for Democrats in general, and Obama specifically:

        1. Habit (as if they received Democratic membership cards with their baptismal certificates!)

        2. Misplaced loyalty, especially in ethnic strongholds such as Irish Boston, Hispanic Los Angeles, Polish Milwaukee, Italian New York

        3. Ignorance, i.e., they have no idea that the Democrat party is now completely controlled by very evil people, such as George Soros. Every American Catholic really needs to read David Carlin’s book “Can a Catholic Be a Democrat? How the Party I Loved Became the Enemy of My Religion”

        4. Too many liberal priests and bishops, the generation ordained in the 1970s when many in the Church went bonkers

        5. Most chanceries (diocesan administrative offices) are staffed by liberals, even in dioceses headed by orthodox/conservative bishops, and these chancery bureaucrats have a lot of power to influence everything from education programs to liturgy, and thus insinuate the liberal worldview into everything, sometimes quite subtly and insidiously.

        6. The bishops — even the conservative ones — are at odds with the majority of Americans on immigration and health care reform. Because of the Democrats’ strong pro-immigration and pro-single-payer-health-care positions, the Democrat party tends to be the default position in the Catholic establishment.

        7. A lot of Catholics have been burned by other Christians’ bigotry, and unfortunately, have reacted by becoming distrustful of sects such as Baptists and non-denominationals that have a history of anti-Catholicism. I believe this is why many Catholics’ default position on George Bush, an outspoken evangelical, was distrust.

        8. A lot of Catholics HATED the Iraq war (they were egged on in this by misinformed liberal priests), and just wanted it to be over. They were blinded by their knee-jerk anti-Bushism into believing Obama’s promises to end it quickly.

        9. For reasons I don’t understand — maybe just bad ol’ human weakness — most Catholics don’t care nearly as much about abortion as I do. For me, it is quite simply a disqualifying issue: If a candidate is too corrupt to stand up against the killing of innocent babies who can’t even defend themselves, that candidate will NEVER get my vote, no matter how much I may like their positions on other issues. Actually, I believe this position of mine has been repeatedly supported by papal encyclicals and other pronouncements from the Vatican. Which brings me to my final point….

        10. Most Catholics are not very well-educated about the teachings of their own faith. They think abortion is just another “social issue” — not realizing that it is a much more essential point of doctrine that has never been wavered from in 2,000 years. The oldest document we have from the early Church, other than some of Paul’s letters, is the “Didache,” or “The Teaching of the Twelve,” which is a compilation of the twelve Apostles’ teachings by those who were taught directly by them. In that letter, contraception and abortion and infanticide are all equally condemned by the Apostles. But look around and ask how many Catholics actually KNOW this.

        • Read Chesterton

          Pray tell… how do all of these ignorant and misguided Catholics differ from misguided and ignorant liberal mainstream protestants? Or ignorant and misguided liberal blacks? Or ignorant and misguided liberal Jews? Are you getting my point here? It is apparently you who have fallen into ignorance, bigotry and judgmentalism despite your high falootin’ reference to the Didacache, which, if you had had the fortitude to actually study, would be less like the proud Pharisee and more like to the repentant sinner, being salt and light rather than cursing the darkness you see around you.

          What have you actually done to bring the conservative perspective to your parish? Are you even faintly aware that it is the Catholic pro-life movement that has been the beacon of truth and the front-line shock force out in front of their evangelical protestant brethren? From your self-important finger-pointing rhetoric, apparently not.

          Is it a curse or a blessing to be you? To be so wonderful enlightened in a sea of unwashed and unfaithful heretics and heathens?

          • http://westforwestwing2012.com heartlander

            There’s a very eye-opening article you might want to read, Read Chesterton, about abortion and the occult:
            http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/complete-interview-with-abigail-seidman-abortion-and-the-occult
            At the end, this brave and blessed-by-the-grace-of-God former atheist says,

            “To me at least, religious conversion is secondary to conversion to pro-life beliefs. I was pro-life for many, many years before accepting Christianity, and although I wasn

          • melissatx

            Simple question. Simple answer. Why would anyone, especially those that historically have a moral reason NOT to, vote for the culture of death and it’s leader. Don’t reply to my posts if all you can do is act like an ass.

            Take your righteous indignation elsewhere.

          • Read Chesterton
          • Bill S

            Inappropriate response. I advise against such an approach in the future.

          • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

            …Reply To This is your friend, folks.

          • Read Chesterton

            ‘Reply to This’ doesn’t seem to work when I operate from my Droid phone… but ‘Reply’ to OP does. I pro’ly would have been better off just reading, enjoying my lunch, and moving on for this one tho’.

        • Read Chesterton

          Pray tell

  • JadedByPolitics

    to legally allow the murder of the innocents. I am shocked by the supposed Religious left and those who mock the Catholic faith ie: Kerry, Pelosi, Kennedy’s who continue to take their rites while pushing abortion. It is why a lot of people have turned away from Religion!

  • Read Chesterton

    and you don’t know me. But whether you understand it or not, that was quite the anti-Catholic screed you put out in your 10 point response above. Please check your premises before you ever do anything like that around me, for I will surely take you to the mat and question your motives, your grasp of reality, or both.

    When a protestant stops going to church, he is gleefully moved to the secular or “non-practicing” column by the pollsters and politicians. When a Catholic stops going to church, that Catholic label stays with them and they become an important asset to the leftists as “disaffected” or “dissenting” Catholics. Why? Because it suits their need to propagandize that the last worldwide institution standing against them has crumbled, when indeed it is winning the battle every day that it can claim one saved baby, one saved family, one saved soul.

    The American bishops have thrown in with the liberals, but they are all getting old and facing forced retirement. The pendulem is swinging away from their 60′s distortion of Vatican II “word of man” and moving back towards the Word of God.

    Using lapsed Catholics or disgruntled dissenters to label all Catholics as somehow representative of a meaningful majority of “liberal Catholics” plays right into the hands of the Enemy. Such talk can come only from naivte or from hate. There is no squishy middle ground here.

  • melissatx

    why the Catholic on the street that is taught to vlaue life, or Jews who have a history of others trying to exterminate them, much like persecuted Caholics, why would any sane person of either faith vote for the party of division, race baiting, and death?

    I KNOW why an average Joe of no faith, tepid faith, or lukewarm anythin else -ists would do so because they are sheeple. They follow the Messiah Obama or his disciples Oprah and Jon Stewart. They are easy prey.

    Those who KNOW better, or ought know better are the ones I cannot figure out.

    • Read Chesterton

      You have assigned equal values, equal education, equal formation of conscience, and equal shares of Grace to all Catholics and put out a challenge as to why some would think and act in sinful immoral ways. In other words, you have constructed an artificial grievance and challenged us to address it for you. Feh!

      Tell us of the ethnicity or religion where everyone, or even a majority, conforms to your idea of Conservative perfection. Then we can all get together and figure out where the Catholics and the Jews went wrong in your eyes.