28 December 2026 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” Matthew 2:18
Within the joy of Christmas the Church remembers the small boys of Bethlehem killed by King Herod. Herod, afraid of losing his throne to the newborn “king of the Jews”, sent soldiers to kill all the children of two years and under in and around Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a small village, so the number of children was probably small; but each one was a person loved by God.
The Church has honoured these children as martyrs since early times. They could not yet speak or choose, yet they died in place of Christ and because of him. The Church teaches that those who die for the faith before receiving Baptism are saved by this “baptism of blood” (CCC 1258). An ancient sermon read today in the Office of Readings says of them that they confess Christ not by speaking but by dying.
Matthew sees in the scene the fulfilment of Jeremiah: “Rachel weeping for her children”. Rachel, mother of the tribes, weeps over her lost children; and every mother who has lost a child can find her grief named in Scripture. Yet Jeremiah's next words are of hope: “there is hope for your future” (Jeremiah 31:17). The child Jesus escapes to Egypt, as Israel once went down to Egypt, and later the Lord will call his Son out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1).
The first reading reminds us that “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all”, and that Jesus “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins”. Herod's darkness does not have the last word. Today the Church prays for all innocent children who suffer: unborn children, children killed in war, abused or abandoned children, and their grieving parents (CCC 2270–2274).
Theme: “Rachel weeping for her children.”
Joseph obeys, the Innocents die for Christ, and God gathers the little ones to himself.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Hosea 11:1
“Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”” Matthew 2:13
Apply: Obey promptly when God's will is clear.
“Thus says the LORD: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Jeremiah 31:15
“When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.” Matthew 2:16
Apply: Comfort a family that has lost a child.
“We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:7–8
“but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”” Matthew 19:14
Apply: Pray and work for unborn and endangered children.
Herod's darkness does not have the last word.
Holy Innocents, pray for all children.
Take-home resolution: Support a work that protects children this week.
Dear brothers and sisters, Christmas is a feast of joy, yet today the Church remembers something terrible: the killing of the little children of Bethlehem.
King Herod heard from the wise men that a new king had been born. He was afraid of losing his power. He tried to trick the wise men and, when that failed, he sent soldiers to kill every boy of two years and under in Bethlehem.
But God protected his Son. An angel warned Joseph in a dream: get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. And Joseph got up that very night and went. Silent, obedient Joseph saved the life of the Saviour.
Matthew recalls the prophet Jeremiah: a voice in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted. Scripture does not hide the grief of mothers. God sees every tear. And the Church honours these children as the first martyrs: they could not speak, but they confessed Christ by dying for him.
Today Herod has many faces. Children are still killed before birth, in wars, through hunger and abuse. The Holy Innocents ask us to stand with the weakest, to protect life from its beginning, and to comfort parents who grieve.
Jesus said: “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them.” Let us bring all the children of the world to him today, and let us be like Joseph, ready to rise and act to protect them.
The Holy Innocents died because a powerful man felt threatened by a child. Children are still in danger today.
📖 Exodus 1:15–22
📖 Matthew 2:16
Apply: Examine where fear makes you harsh.
📖 Jeremiah 31:15–17
📖 Matthew 2:17–18
Apply: Pray for parents who have lost a child.
📖 Psalm 127:3
📖 Mark 10:13–16
Apply: Support one concrete work for children in need.
Christ identified Himself with the little ones; to protect them is to protect Him.
The feast calls us to be Josephs, not Herods.
Take-home resolution: I will support one concrete work that protects children.
Dear brothers and sisters, three days after Christmas the Church remembers a terrible event. King Herod, afraid that the newborn King of the Jews would take his throne, ordered the killing of all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under (Matthew 2:16). The Church honours these children as martyrs: they died in place of Christ.
Herod is a picture of power that feels threatened. He had palaces and soldiers, yet he was terrified of a baby. Fear makes people cruel. There are Herods in every age: those who sacrifice the weak to protect their comfort, position or wealth. And there is a little Herod in each of us when fear makes us harsh.
Matthew quotes the prophet: a voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more (Matthew 2:18; Jeremiah 31:15). God hears that cry. Today let us pray for all parents who have lost a child, through illness, accident, violence or miscarriage. Their children are in God's hands.
And let us ask: where are the innocents in danger today? The unborn child whose life is not protected. Children who are abused, even, to our great shame, in some places within the Church. Children forced to work, children trafficked, children in refugee camps, children growing up without love. Jesus said that whoever welcomes a child in His name welcomes Him, and warned terribly against those who cause little ones to stumble (Matthew 18:5–6).
So this feast calls each of us to be a Joseph, not a Herod: to rise and protect the child. Make our homes and parishes safe places. Support works that care for children in need. Defend life from its beginning. At this Holy Mass let us offer all the innocent victims of our world to the Child of Bethlehem, who came to save them.
The Holy Innocents remind us of the Church's teaching on the dignity of every human life, especially the smallest.
📖 Jeremiah 1:5
📖 Luke 1:41–44
Apply: Pray for the protection of unborn children.
📖 Psalm 127:3–5
📖 Mark 10:13–16
Apply: Thank God for the children in your family.
📖 Isaiah 49:15
📖 Luke 15:20–24
Apply: If you carry such a wound, come to confession: God's mercy is greater.
The Church defends the child because Christ came as a child.
Truth about life and mercy toward sinners go together.
Take-home resolution: I will pray daily for the protection of children and for mothers in difficulty.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Innocents were killed before they could speak a word, yet the Church has honoured them as martyrs since ancient times. Their feast invites us to recall the Church's teaching on the dignity of the child.
The Catechism teaches that human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God; God alone is the Lord of life from beginning to end; no one can claim the right directly to destroy an innocent human being (CCC 2258). Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception (CCC 2270). The prophet heard God say: before I formed you in the womb I knew you (Jeremiah 1:5). And the child John leaped in Elizabeth's womb at the presence of the unborn Christ (Luke 1:41).
Children are the supreme gift of marriage (CCC 2378). They are not property and not a burden, but persons entrusted to their parents. Parents have the first right and duty to educate them; society and the State have the duty to protect them (CCC 2211, 2221). Jesus took the children in His arms and blessed them, and said that the Kingdom belongs to such as these (Mark 10:14–16).
The Church also has a grave duty to protect minors in her own life. Every parish, school and institution must be a safe place. Where children have been harmed, the truth must be faced, victims must be heard and helped, and justice done.
At the same time, the Church proclaims mercy. If someone here carries the wound of abortion, in their own life or by assisting another, do not despair. The sin is grave, but God's mercy is greater. Come to confession; the Father runs to embrace the returning child (Luke 15:20). Let us offer this Holy Mass for all innocent victims, for mothers in difficulty, and for a culture that welcomes every child.
Children, today we remember the baby boys of Bethlehem.
A bad king named Herod wanted to hurt baby Jesus. An angel told Joseph to take Jesus far away to Egypt, and Joseph obeyed.
The king hurt other babies, but Jesus took them to heaven. They are now saints!
Jesus loves every child. Let us pray today for children who are sick or in danger.
O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in you which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Three days after Christmas the Church wears red and remembers the children of Bethlehem. The readings do not soften the contrast. John's letter proclaims that “God is light” and that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin, yet it knows that darkness is real and that people walk in it. The psalm is the song of those who have escaped by God's help alone. Matthew tells of a king who, out of fear for his throne, kills children, while Joseph carries the child away by night and Rachel weeps. The key words are light, blood and weeping. The Church does not explain away this grief. She sets it beside the crib and the Cross.
Setting.
The First Letter of John does not name its author; tradition links it with St John and the community formed by his Gospel. It is usually dated toward the end of the first century. A division has torn that community: some have gone out (2:19) and seem to claim knowledge of God while denying that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (4:2) and making light of sin and of love for others.
The Lectionary reads this letter through the days of Christmas. It suits the season: the same voice that says “the Word became flesh” here says what that means for daily life. Today's passage follows straight after the opening verses (1:1–4).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1:7)
The verb is in the present tense: it cleanses, again and again. Today of all days the words sound strong. The blood of the Innocents is shed because of Christ; the blood of Christ is shed for them.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1:8)
Christians can still sin, and denying it is its own kind of darkness. St Augustine often quoted this verse against those who taught that the baptized could live without any sin (in substance).
“If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1:9)
God is “just” here because he keeps his promise to forgive. To confess is to say the same as God says about my sin.
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” (2:1)
John's tone is that of an old pastor. His first goal is that they not sin; the second half of the verse then gives hope to those who do.
“and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (2:2)
The horizon is the whole world. John's little community may not think of Christ as its private possession.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism uses 1:5 when it teaches that God is truth (CCC 214), quotes 1:8–9 on conversion and the mercy of God (CCC 1425, 1847), and quotes 2:2 for the Church's teaching that Christ died for all without exception (CCC 605). St Augustine, who preached a series of homilies on this letter, says that its chief message is love (in substance). In the Mass we confess our sins at the start, and we hear the Lamb “who takes away the sins of the world” before Communion: the same two movements as this passage.
Setting.
Psalm 124 is one of the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem. Its title links it with David. It is a thanksgiving of the whole people after a danger that would have destroyed them. No particular event is named, so it can be sung in any age.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when our enemies attacked us,” (124:2)
The whole psalm hangs on this “if”. The singer looks back and sees how near the end was.
“then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;” (124:4)
In the Bible, great waters are the image of chaos and death, as with Jonah 2:3 and Psalm 69:1–2.
“the snare is broken, and we have escaped.” (124:7)
“Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (124:8)
One of the best-known verses in Christian prayer.
How the Church reads it.
The Church sings this psalm today on behalf of children who did not escape from Herod's sword. So it has to be heard at a deeper level. Their escape is of another kind, for the Church holds that they have been taken into Christ's victory, beyond the reach of every snare. The Mass of the day has long applied the image of the bird to them. V. 8 has entered the liturgy: “Our help is in the name of the Lord” is the versicle with which many blessings in the Roman Rite begin.
Setting.
In Matthew's first two chapters, each scene is built around a passage of the prophets, and he repeats a formula of fulfilment. Today there are two such quotations, Hosea and Jeremiah. The Magi have just left by another road. Joseph, who is silent throughout the Gospels, receives the second of his dreams (1:20; 2:13, 19, 22).
Herod the Great ruled Judea under Rome and died in 4 BC. The Jewish historian Josephus records his brutality toward any rival, including the killing of a wife and of his own sons. Josephus does not mention Bethlehem, but the deed fits what he tells of Herod. Bethlehem was a small place, and commentators often estimate that the children killed were perhaps a dozen or two. Matthew is not reporting a statistic; every one of them was somebody's child. Egypt was a natural place of refuge, with large Jewish communities at that time.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt” (2:13)
The Son of God begins his life on earth as a refugee, and the Church's concern for migrants has a root here.
“Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt,” (2:14)
No word is spoken, and no question is asked. Joseph obeys at once, in the dark.
“Out of Egypt I have called my son.” (2:15)
Hosea 11:1 speaks of Israel coming out of Egypt. Matthew sees Jesus living through his people's history in his own person. Jesus is God's Son in a unique sense.
“he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under” (2:16)
The evil here belongs to one man who feared for his power. Matthew does not blame the people of Judea, who are the victims. It is a warning about what power will do when it feels itself threatened.
“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children;” (2:18)
Jeremiah 31:15 pictures Rachel, mother of the northern tribes, weeping as the exiles pass on the way to Babylon; Ramah was a gathering place for the exiles (Jeremiah 40:1). Another tradition placed her tomb on the way to Bethlehem (Genesis 35:19). The next verses in Jeremiah offer comfort: “there is hope for your future” (31:17). Matthew leaves the promise unspoken here. It will come at Easter.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the flight into Egypt and the massacre of the innocents show the opposition of darkness to the light, that Christ's whole life was lived under the sign of persecution, and that his own share it with him (CCC 530). These children did not know Christ and were not baptized with water, yet the Church has honoured them since ancient times as martyrs, because they died for his sake (compare CCC 1258, on the baptism of blood). St Irenaeus says that the Lord sent them ahead into his kingdom (in substance, Against Heresies 3.16). St Quodvultdeus, in the sermon in today's Office of Readings, marvels that children who cannot yet speak bear witness to Christ (in substance), and the poet Prudentius greets them as “flowers of the martyrs”. The Church teaches that all innocent human life is sacred from conception (CCC 2270), and today she remembers all children who suffer from war, neglect and violence.
Did this really happen, since no other ancient writer mentions it?
Matthew is the only source. Josephus does not mention it, but the killing of a few village children may have seemed small beside Herod's other crimes, and it matches what is known of his character. The Church has kept the feast as a real event, while Matthew's main concern is the meaning of the event in God's plan.
Why did God warn Joseph but not the other parents?
Scripture does not answer this, and we should not invent an answer. The passage gives no explanation. It gives Rachel's weeping, which is a prayer, and it shows God's Son himself entering a world where such things happen, on his way to a Cross where he too will be killed unjustly. The answer to innocent suffering in Christian faith is less an argument than the crucified and risen Lord.
How can the unbaptized children be saints?
The Church has long regarded those who die for Christ before baptism as baptized by their death (CCC 1258). The Innocents are the first example honoured in the liturgy. Scripture says nothing of their number or their names, and the Church honours them with one feast.
In the Roman calendar the Innocents stand close behind Christmas with St Stephen on 26 December and St John on 27 December. An old way of speaking, found in St Bernard, explains the three together: Stephen was a martyr in will and in deed, John in will, and the Innocents in deed (in substance). Red vestments mark the feast as a feast of martyrs. It is a fitting day to pray for parents who have lost a child, for children who are in danger, and for the protection of every unborn child, and to bring those names to the altar at Mass.