Brueghel's Massacre of the InnocentsToday's feast I think is the most extra-ordinary of the year. The Holy Innocents reminds us that God's mercy is great, for here are those who were not baptised, who no faith but who the Church honours as saints. Through God's mercy they are caught up in the Mystery of Redemption. In a way this feast shows the other side of the coin from the doctrine of Limbo, which was discussed by the International Theological Commission earlier this year, and was not subsequently "abolished" by the Pope. Limbo and the Holy Innocents remind us both of the necessity of baptism for salvation and yet that the mercy of God is confined by anything. Together they remind us of the necessity for theological tension.
Today I offered Mass for the victims of abortion, today's Holy Innocents, if you have the stomach read this from the Daily Mail, it has done the rounds on other blogs, so you might have already seen it.
2 comments:
Thank you for the link. A colleague at work has a degenerative disease and has been persuaded that stem cell treatment in The Netherlands will help him. A group of well meaning people is raising money for him. My refusal to support them has invited obloquy, but, hopefull (and shamefully) a Daily Mail article might at least make people think I'm not (just) a crank
Thank you Fr. for sharing. My parish priest also gave a stirring homily on abortion and asked us to thank our parents who were there in Church for not aborting us =)
He also lamented the death of innocence citing his experience in Vietnam where children as young as nine were mired in prostitution after being sold by their parent for cash.
There was a young looking girl working for the Pastoral institute and the others always treated her gently, avoiding making crude jokes or remarks in her presence. But they did not know that she is also working at a home for former prostitutes which she had help start.
The death of innocence.
Post a Comment