The Darker Side of Epiphany

Gospel Reflection for January 4, 2026, the Feast of Epiphany - Matthew 2:1-12

When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.

Saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to adore him.

And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born.

But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet:

And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.

Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them;

And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come to adore him.

Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was.

And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country. (Matthew 2:1-12 DRA)

On December 28^th, the third day in the Octave of Christmas, we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Innocents, also known as Childermas, meaning the Mass of children. Epiphany, which historically preceded Herod’s massacre of the innocent children under two years of age in Bethlehem, is celebrated this Sunday. But with Childermas in mind, we can see a hint of Herod’s unspoken, sinister intentions: he lied to the Magi, desiring not to worship the newborn King of the Jews – which he thought himself to be – but to find and kill him. He would carry out this intention, after being thwarted by the Magi, by slaughtering the innocents of Bethlehem.

This implicit point in today’s Gospel reading gives a darker undertone to the great Feast of Epiphany, one which has otherwise been an occasion of profound celebrations historically rivaling Christmas in many cultures. But at every point in the life of Our Lord, His Passion was prefigured, and even in the pure intentions of the Magi, the murderous heart of Herod already anticipated the wickedness of those who would crucify Him thirty-three years later.

As we rejoice in the sanctification of reason, philosophy and science, the miracle of the conversion of the Gentiles and the rich symbolism of Epiphany, we should also take a lesson from Herod which is painfully relevant for us today. We live in a world where people on all levels of society, and most of all the wealthy and those in positions of power or cultural influence, share the same hatred of children that once drove Herod. The elites in Hollywood and Washington, DC, Toronto, London, Paris and other world capitals, the members of the UN, EU, WHO and other international organizations, all continue to advocate for our own modern-day slaughter of the innocents through the demonic sacrament of abortion and its cousin which is growing in popularity, infanticide.

Great men like Charlie Kirk are now not only threatened but assassinated in large part due to their opposition to the slaughter of the innocents being perpetrated by organizations like Planned Parenthood, taught in schools and celebrated in the streets by bloodthirsty fanatics who would often make Herod look mild-mannered by comparison. Pro-life heroes like Kristan Hawkins, Steven Mosher and others undergo death threats to themselves and their families, verbal abuse and physical assault, simply for speaking out against this horrible crime as the blood of the innocent cries out to Heaven for God’s vengeance. And even those who claim to oppose abortion, like the hierarchy of the Church, rarely speak about it and even dare to lump it together or subordinate it to other, debatable issues like immigration and climate change.

The angel warned the Magi in a dream not to lead Herod to the home of the Christ Child, knowing what Herod intended to do to him. For the same reason, St. Joseph would lead his family to Egypt until Herod finally went to his judgment. Today, the guardian angels who are assigned to the souls of every unborn child at conception are crying out to us as Christians to stand up for children, born and unborn, threatened by pro-abortion demoniacs, treated like spare parts by so-called ‘doctors’, frozen and injected into surrogates in a bastardization of natural reproduction and discarded in dumpsters like human refuse.

All of this goes on every day while most people simply go about their business as if everything’s perfectly fine, worried about trivial matters while a Holocaust far worst than that perpetrated by Hitler is raging all around us. As Christians, we will be judged by how we listen to the prompts of Christ, and today He is crying out, like the voices of the innocents once massacred by Herod, for us to stand up in their defense, to speak out against the venom of those for whom convenience, ‘freedom’ and hedonistic debauchery are worth more than the lives of innocent children. May we heed this call and, like the Magi, flee from every form of evil, most of all that which corrupts, misleads, scandalizes or murders innocent children.

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