Justice for the innocents
WE
Roman Catholics celebrate it on December 28, while our Eastern Orthodox friends mark it today, December 29. I’m referring to the Feast of the Holy Innocents, or Innocents’ Day.
It is a Christian feast commemorating the massacre of Bethlehem’s firstborn sons on orders of Herod, the tyrant king who felt insecure by the birth of Jesus.
The Gospel of Matthew tells this rather familiar story:
“Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
“A cry was heard in Ramah — weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.”
I said “rather familiar” because contemporary events somehow mirror this Biblical story.
Today, we hear the weeping and great mourning of tens of thousands of mothers — also like Rachel — whose children have been killed on orders of the cheap poser “king.”
All the victims of the war waged by this pseudo-king were innocent — but they were punished without and outside the due process of law which in fact prohibits the penalty of death.
The victims’ heads were often wrapped in packaging tape to hide their faces. Sometimes, entire bodies were wrapped in tape, so that people would perhaps doubt the humanity of the victim.
It is a sign of madness: The perverted king’s inclusion of infants, toddlers, schoolchildren, and other young people under the age of 18 as legitimate targets of his war or devalued as mere “collateral damage.”
It is a sign of madness as well: that the power-hungry king would order the bombing of Lumad schools.
Today’s cheap Herod mistakenly thinks today’s Rachels are weaklings and pushovers. He insults them, no end. Those Rachels who go and join the armed resistance, he orders his soldiers to shoot their vaginas.
The other Rachels had to be removed from their high office, or sent to prison. True, today’s Rachels weep and mourn greatly — but they fight back too.
Of course, there are a few who exchange their loyalties and intellect to the king, in exchange for few pounds of gold. We see and hear them everywhere. They mimic, defend, and join the king in his antics and insults. They try vainly to convince us that his crimes are okay, acceptable, or needed. They worship the king as if he could bring back the dead, but what he has done is to cause deaths and suffering.
The followers of the baby Herod sought to kill outlasted and outlived him. He is remembered as a bloodthirsty tyrant. The baby he sought to kill grew up, became the greatest prophet and revolutionary leader.
May Holy Innocents Day make us remember the tyranny of the past, and inspire us to fight tyranny today and in the future. May the blood of innocents wash away our hyperpartisanship, and the belief in false gods and false prophets. May our history and collective experience bring us to the realization that we, the Filipino people, are the heroes and whose mettle and determination can stop tyranny, save innocents, and bring about authentic change.