Feast of the Holy Innocents : Monday 28th December 2020

In this age of Covid 19, the concept of holy innocents may well have taken on a new connotation for many people. Many people have died because of the virus, most of them innocent victims of what seems to have been at least an irresponsible and careless act endangering the lives of people.

We will, of course, probably never know the truth concerning the origin and the dissemination of the virus. Quite many of the victims, the front-line health workers, must be described as “martyrs of charity”: “no one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

That “greatest love” bestows the greatest holiness on those who have so offered their care and selfless service. It is most fitting that we remember them with respect and admiration and in whatever concrete way we find possible.

Some form of “canonisation” of their memory would perhaps seem to be the least we can do. In the past, the Church canonized individuals, (Saint Aloysius Gonzaga S.J. and Saint John Berchmans S.J.), who died serving victims of the plague.

Heavenly Father, receive the sacrifices of the “martyrs of charity” and bless them. Free us from our sins and the world of the dangerous Coronavirus. Amen.