Comites Christi: Companions of Christ

After the joy and glory of the feast of Christmas on Dec. 25, the series of saints’ feasts in the next three days come as a sober, startling reminder of the Paschal Mystery. The feasts of the “companions of Christ” seem to be in the wrong season but have been celebrated on these dates for centuries. The companions are Stephen, the first martyr on Dec. 26, John the Apostle and Evangelist on Dec. 27 and the Holy Innocents, the children Herod killed in Bethlehem on Dec. 28.

Each of these feasts illustrate what it means to be a companion of Christ. Each exemplifies the consequences of walking with Christ and giving testimony about the “Good news.” Some commentators view them in terms of martyrdom. Stephen experienced a red martyrdom, spilling his blood for the sake of his faith; John the Evangelist lived a white martyrdom being sent into exile on the Island of Patmos; the Holy Innocents suffered an innocent martyrdom because they had been born around the time of Christ’s birth.

This year I am particularly struck by the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Some time ago I was given a trip to Israel in December and went to the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. All of the memorials were moving but the Children’s Memorial was heartbreaking.  It is a memorial for the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered during the Holocaust, hollowed out from an underground cavern. You walk through the dark cave lit with memorial candles, a customary Jewish tradition to remember the dead, reflected infinitely in the dark space. The candles create the impression of millions of stars shining in the firmament. The names of murdered children, their ages and countries of origin can be heard in the background. I wept as I walked through it. When I returned home, the first feast celebrated was the feast of the Holy Innocents and I wept again.

  In this year of 2012 the feast of the Holy Innocents is made flesh again. We think first of the children murdered at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut, then with just a little imagination we think of all the children murdered by drive by shootings or by weapons in the hands of people, who like Herod, are afraid, who have too much power and who think only of their own motivations. We also think of the children who are abused and murdered by their own families. It is no consolation that all of these children are companions of Christ.

            On Dec. 28 we can only pray in the words of the Book of Common Prayer: "…Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace."

         Sr. Deborah Harmeling, OSB