Feast of the Holy Innocents

We were confirmed in the Eighth Grade. I choose St. Michael as my Confirmation name. It seemed appropriate and I liked the image of chasing evil out of heaven. We talked about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and even went away for a one day retreat. Anyway a week before Confirmation a young boy was kidnapped while doing his paper route. He happened to be the cousin of one of our classmates, and a well known family in the City of Rockford. There was a massive search throughout the city and in northwest Illinois. Sadly they found his body at a boyscout camp, near Stockton, Illinois, on the day of our Confirmation. Being that he was the same age as many of us, and our parish relationship with this family, our focus was less on Confirmation and more on this horrific event staring all of us in the face. Even as an Eighth grader I could not help but wonder what terror there must have been for this child.

In sort of a weird way, even a scriptural way, it was an awakening to the real world. As we put away our Christmas stuff we go back to work, school, and other activities far removed from the niceties of the celebrations of Christmas. The intention of this feast is that we might not lose our focus, and to remember that Christ comes to take away Sin and Evil. While Christmas is a Child's feast in so many ways, the reality is that Christ comes to bring salvation and peace into the very adult world where there is brokenness, pain, and division.

It is mind-boggling to read about the amount of poverty and hunger that wracks the world. Child abuse and neglect are way too common in the world today. And sadly abortion is commonly looked upon as a form of birth control. Sometime google the phrase, 'boyfriend charged with abuse.' News stories from across the U.S. will pop up. To be sure the abuse is problematic, but we enter into unhealthy relationships that foster all sorts of ugliness and pain.

I was with a family several nights ago, sharing some of the subjects that I would cover with the Fifth graders. The husband and father mentioned that he thought some of the subjects I had mentioned, should be covered in the home. I had no objection to dads and moms talking to their children about chastity, modesty, self-respect, and even sexuality. The home is the beginning of good faith formation and stewardship.

We want to respond to the overt damage and abuse that is done against children, but also that which is covert, whereas we expect schools, sports activities, T.V. stars to models and directors of our children into adult life. I don't think we have to live as monks and nuns in order to offer a moral foundation for our world today. Like the prophets we have to be aware of the brokenness and make bold in declaring the virtues and values that our lives stand for.