There is something distinctly un-sentimental about the historical form that the Christian liturgical calendar has come to exhibit during the season of Christmas.  The Feast of the Nativity is immediately followed the next day by the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr.  Today (December 28) is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the date on the calendar set aside for commemorating the children massacred following the birth of Jesus as depicted in the Gospel of Matthew (2:16-18).  In this way, the Christian liturgical calendar is simply following the brutal realism of Scripture.  The coming of the Prince of Peace sets on edge the petty tyrants of our world like Herod. Continue reading The Feast of the Holy Innocents and the Tyrannical Despiser of Humanity →