CAPG's Blog 

"Then Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the Wise Men, was exceeding angry, and sending, killed all the men children,"

I. When They Are Raised Against The Innocent.
II. When They Proceed From Hatred To Christ.
III. When They Are Borne In Defense Of Christ.

1. Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the Wise Men. The Magi might appear culpable in the eyes of Herod for not having made known to him the abode of the Child, as he had enjoined them; but these children neither had committed, nor could have committed, any fault whatever; so that St. Augustine puts these words in the mouths of the mothers :. "If it is a crime it is mine; if it is not, deliver us."

Herod therefore was unjustly enraged against them. In like manner, when persecutors have no just ground of complaint against Priests; when they are "innocent and upright" (Ps. xxiv. 21); when their imprudence has not excited persecution (for it often happens that " the tongue of the fool is his ruin," Eccl. v. 15), let them not grieve; the wrong rests with their enemies. Let them, on the contrary, rest in tranquillity of conscience, and say with the Apostle: "I rejoice in my sufferings " (Col. i. 24); let them remember that they have a share in the eighth Beatitude: "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (St. Matt. v. 10). St. Chrysostom, commenting on this passage, observes that our Savior does not name the persons who persecute, but only the motive for persecution, "for justice' sake;" whether you are persecuted by idolaters, or by heretics, or by Christians whom you have perhaps corrected for their faults, if it is for justice' sake, your advantage is the same. Therefore consider not who persecutes you, but why you are persecuted. Let Priests remember that they are the ministers of Him Who said, "They have hated Me without cause " (St . John xv. 25) ; that many of their predecessors have sung with the Prophet, "Princes have persecuted Me with out cause" (Ps. cxviii. 161); and that "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. iii. 12). Priests are more exposed to such persecution than other men, because they are "set up a wall for the House of Israel" (Ezekiel xiii. 5), which the enemies of the City assail. By Thy help, O my God, make me "a wall of iron" (Ezekiel iv. 3).

2. He was exceeding angry. The wrath and hatred of Herod were not, says St. Leo, directed against the children for their own sake, but for the sake of the Messiah, whom he sought to destroy in the cradle; and therefore they died martyrs, and are venerated as such by Holy Church. For which reason, observes St . Augustine, no honor shown them by the tyrant could have profited them so greatly as did his hatred. In like manner Priests are often objects of the hatred of unbelievers, because these men hate Christ and His Gospel, His Church and His Heavenly Father. He forewarned His Priests of this when He ordained them, saying, your enemies "have hated both Me and My Father" (St. John xv. 24); and remember that "if the world hate you, know you that it hath hated Me before you" (ib. 18); and it hates you precisely "because . . I have chosen you out of the world" (ib. 19); and as this hatred was the cause " that they have persecuted Me," so will it be the cause that " they will also persecute you" (ib. 20). Therefore let us arm ourselves with these forewarning, let us fear the love of the world more than its hatred, and let us not flatter ourselves that the world can love the members whilst it hates the Head. As St. Augustine says, we ought, for the love of Christ, to endure the hatred of the world along with our Head. Let us pray to God to give us patience and courage under the persecutions to which He shall see fit to subject us, and may all Priests who in any part of the world are now suffering the persecutions of the wicked, by His grace triumph over them; and we and they shall owe our eternal blessedness to those very persecutions.

3. Killed all the men children. The Innocents, by their death, saved the life of the Divine Child, for the tyrant, believing Him to be included in the general massacre, no longer sought Him. Moreover they proclaimed the name of the new-born King, "not by speaking, but by dying;" for, as St. Leo says, this atrocious act caused His birth to be made known even in the Capital of the World, where a foundation was thus laid for the promulgation of the Gospel. Priests are in like manner often persecuted for defending Christ; and here let us recollect that he who defends the truth, defends Christ, for He said: "I am . . . the Truth" (St. John xiv. 6). He who defends Wisdom, Justice, or .any other Virtue, defends Christ, for He is Wisdom itself, Justice itself, Virtue itself. "He is made unto us of God, wisdom, and justice " (1 Cor. i. 30); "Christ the power of God" (1 Cor. i. 24); "He who defends the Church defends Christ, for He is the Head of the Church" (Eph. v. 23). Blessed, then, are we if in such a cause we suffer calumny, sarcasm, oppression, or even death. St. Ambrose tells us that there is nothing we should fear so much, that nothing is so dangerous before God, and contemptible before men, as silence when it is our duty to denounce sin.

"In God I have put my trust, I will not fear what flesh can do against me." —Ps. lv. II.

"Thou deliverest them that wait for Thee, O Lord, and savest them out of the hands of the nations."—Eccles. li. 12.

Source: Meditations for the use of the clergy, for every day in the year. On the Gospels for the Sundays, Volume 1 by
Angelo Agostino Scotti (abp. of Thessalonica.)