The great Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated by Christians all over the world, is an oft-told tale of the faith of the three Magi, who undertook a long and presumably perilous journey to find the Christ Child and present Him with three precious gifts that foretold his suffering, death, and Kingship.
But this beautiful story of wise men following the star also has a tragic undertone. When the Magi informed King Herod the Great of Judea that they were searching for “the newborn King of the Jews,” Herod became paranoid about a possible threat to his throne from the newborn.
So he hatched a plot to kill the Baby, telling the Magi to let him know where they found Him so Herod could himself go to worship Him.
Of course, the evil king had no such plans. When the wise men were informed by an angel that they should not return with the news that Jesus was in Bethlehem and went back to their own country by another route, a furious Herod ordered the execution of all the male children under two years of age. The Church remembers the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents on December 28.
The Holy Innocents were not Herod’s first victims. He had his brother-in-law and then his beautiful wife, Queen Mariamne, executed for allegedly plotting against him. He was so drunk with political power that no one who he believed was a threat to his throne was spared – even tiny babies.
Herod’s evil deeds were so monstrous that he is one of the few kings who is remembered 2,000 years later for his atrocities. But we are living in a time when many are pushing the execution of tiny unborn babies as a way to achieve and retain political power.
Any politician who favors the “choice” to kill a baby in utero, and all those who profit from this bloodletting of the innocent, are just as bad as King Herod was.
And there are so many Herods among us.
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, the battle for life has moved from the federal level to the states, but it still rages on. We must continue our efforts to fight this incredible evil and to make America pro-life again.