From Dr. George Grant:
Often called Childermas, this day on the Christian calendar has traditionally been celebrated as the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It is a day which solemnizes the slaughter of the children of Judea by Herod the Great following the birth of Christ. At Parish Pres, we will celebrate Childermas this coming Lord's Day.
This commoration has always been the focus of the faithful Church’s commitment to protect and preserve the sanctity of human life—thus serving as a prophetic warning against the practitioners of abandonment and infanticide in the age of antiquity, oblacy and pessiary in the medieval epoch, and abortion and euthanasia in these modern times. Generally set aside as a day of prayer, it culminates with a declaration of the covenant community’s unflinching commitment to the innocents who are unable to protect themselves.
Having been raised in a Protestant home, I never heard of Childermas or the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Dr. Grant explains how his Presbyterian church practices this ancient tradition of remembrance and renewed commitment to protecting the defenseless. He also provides sad, historical detail of how abortion and infanticide have been a practice of "civilized" societies through all of history.
How we treat the unwanted in our society will be the moral yardstick by which history judges us.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said,
"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."
An aborted infant is an unwanted infant. It is a victim of the greatest poverty there is -- the poverty of being unwanted.
Some may be satisfied with simply lowering teen pregancy rates in our land. Merely lowering the death toll is not enough. We, who follow Christ, are called to engage minds with persuasive arguments and hearts with the love of Christ. We need to turn the ethos of this culture towards an ethic that cherishes life and addresses the root cause of this great poverty -- a lack of love.
As Dr. Grant eloquently reminds us,
The Gospel therefore came into the world as a stern rebuke. God, who is the giver of life (Acts 17:25), the fountain of life (Psalm 36:9), and the defender of life (Psalm 27:1), not only sent us the message of life (Acts 5:20) and the words of life (John 6:68), He sent us the light of life as well (John 8:12). He sent us His only begotten Son—the life of the world (John 6:51)--to break the bonds of sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:54-56). For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
I plan on celebrating Childermas this Sunday by praying for God to show me how I can fulfill my call to stand with the covenant community in its unflinching commitment to the innocents who are unable to protect themselves. I pray you will as well.
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