Beware, it’s Niños Inocentes

Today is the day of the Niños Inocentes, marking the sacrifice of innocent boys aged two or under by King Herod the Great in his futile attempt to get rid of the Christ child born in Bethlehem.

To the Catholic Church, the "holy babes and sucklings" symbolize those who are ready to die for Christ at any age and in any time: they died instead of Christ, and thus for Him. Innocent children are now considered "the First Saints of the Church" and their martyrdom is commemorated with a Mass devoted to their supreme sacrifice that the Baby Jesus may live and do what He was ordained to do.

During the Holy Mass today, the reading of the Scriptures will recount the children’s martyrdom that came about when Herod, wary of the foretold birth of the Messiah, failed to find the newborn child despite his attempt to guile the three magi who came to Jerusalem inquiring about the baby born in Bethlehem.

By the way, Herod "the Great," king of Judea, was quite unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference so he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant, however, capable of extreme brutality including the murder of his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few.

The three magi must have known Herod’s nature and kind so that when they found the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, and after praising Him and giving Him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, they returned to their land, skipping Jerusalem along the way.

Then, Joseph, warned by an angel in a dream, brought Mary and the baby Jesus safely to Egypt.

Troubled, and chagrined by the fact that the magi made a fool of him, Herod ordered that all newborn babies and first-born children in and around Bethlehem be killed so that his throne could be secured.

The 15th-century "Pageant of the Shearman and Tailors" dramatizes the plight of the families of the innocents in the "Coventry Carol" part sung by the women of Bethlehem, just before Herod’s soldiers came to slaughter their children: "Lulla, lulla, thou little tiny child, By, by, lully, lullay. Thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay… Herod the king in his raging, Charged he hath this day His men of might In his own sight, All young children to slay..."

Days and nights of terror reigned as soldiers carried out Herod’s horrendous order and the air was filled with the wailing and lamentations of mothers grieving over their murdered children.

In today’s homilies at the special Mass, it will be emphasized that the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents was something foreboding, and that the Holy Child born in a manger in Bethlehem "will become the man of sorrows, the embodiment of the suffering servant, shattered and almost unrecognizable, without beauty, without majesty" (Isaiah 53:2)

While the faithful continue to observe religious rites like that for the Holy Innocents, it only takes Pinoys to add a "twist of humor" even to the solemn commemoration of their martyrdom — they have turned the day into something akin to the American "April Fools Day," or an opportunity to play pranks on unsuspecting folk.

In the spirit of fun, practical jokes and some harmless trickery like "borrowing" money or other things will likely be sprung on "innocent" victims who, in the spirit of fun as well, are expected to accept the fact they could no longer recover the "borrowed" things.

So, beware today!