December 28

According to Wikipedia, December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. Well, I am not interested in knowing what historical events happened on this day and also, I am not at all interested to see what famous, interesting and notable events happened throughout history on 28 December. What matters me the most is that on this day, thirteen years ago, I got married to my Golu.

While researching on December 28, I came to know that according to Catholicism, December 28 is the Feast of the Holy Innocents or Martyrs. During this octave of Christmas, the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.
Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

The Daily Readings for December 28, 2012 will be as follows:

Reading 1, First John 1:5--2:2

This is what we have heard from him and are declaring to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 If we say that we share in God's life while we are living in darkness, we are lying, because we are not living the truth. 7 But if we live in light, as he is in light, we have a share in another's life, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, 'We have no sin,' we are deceiving ourselves, and truth has no place in us; 9 if we acknowledge our sins, he is trustworthy and upright, so that he will forgive our sins and will cleanse us from all evil. 10 If we say, 'We have never sinned,' we make him a liar, and his word has no place in us.
1 My children, I am writing this to prevent you from sinning; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright. 2 He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 124:2-3, 4-5, 7-8

2 if Yahweh had not been on our side when people attacked us, 3 they would have swallowed us alive in the heat of their anger. 4 Then water was washing us away, a torrent running right over us; 5 running right over us then were turbulent waters. 7 We escaped like a bird from the fowlers' net. The net was broken and we escaped; 8 our help is in the name of Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.

Gospel, Matthew 2:13-18

13 After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.' 14 So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt. 16 Herod was furious on realising that he had been fooled by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. 17 Then were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18 A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.