Street children and the Holy Innocents

December 28, or the fourth day of Christmas in the Roman Catholic calendar, is Childermas or Holy Innocent’s Day. It is a feast to commemorate the first Christian martyrs; the Massacre of the Innocents by King Herod. From the Gospel of Matthew, passage 2:16-18, comes the story.

The Magi (their number was never given in the Bible) left the Holy Family. An angel came in a dream and told Joseph to flee with Mary and the newborn Child Jesus to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. There they would wait till the angel informed them of Herod’s passing. Remember, King Herod believed the King-to-be Jesus to be a rival for power and position. He would do anything to protect his interests. Herod failed. In his anger he ordered soldiers to Bethlehem and “ordered them to kill every baby boy two years old and under, both in the town in the nearby farms.”

Modern researchers have estimated the number of slain children between six and 25. Their importance is that they were the proto-martyrs of the Christian faith. They died not only for Christ, but in place of Christ. Ironically enough, Holy Innocent’s Day was celebrated the way we celebrate April Fool’s Day, that is, sending the gullible on a fool’s errand or playing practical jokes. This also explains why the April Fool’s Day never really took off here; we already had a celebration of this sort on December 28.

In 1996, we wrote “that festivities, if they are to be kept alive, must be made relevant to the times. We believe that the Feast of the Holy Innocents could be one of the most meaningful feasts during out time. How? By making it relevant to the Holy Innocents of our times. Who are they? Who else but our street children. They are the Holy Innocents of our present society.”

This year we saw that tremendous effort is being expended by civil society to help the street children. Efren Penaflorida and many others are working tirelessly to bring education and opportunity to the street children. As has been said many times before, education is the gift that keeps on giving. It is a fundamental right of any member of civil society.

We maintain that the abandoned and abused street children are the modern counterparts of the Holy Innocents. Let’s put it this way, if the Ampatuans and others of their ilk can accumulate mansions and expensive imported cars through graft and corruption, there is potentially enough money in this country to begin tackling and solving this problem.

In 2006, Holy Innocent’s Day in the Philippines was dedicated to the abused and abandoned street children; this is a good start. Among the United Nations Millennium Goals (which are geared towards ending poverty by 2015) one goal specifically relates to street children and education: “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.”

We firmly believe that the best way to help the street children of the Philippines is develop programs to bring education to them. Non-profit organizations are already doing so, it would be good for the Philippine government to work with (and not emulate) these groups to fix this problem. We already have a day dedicated to the street children. Let’s expand it and dedicate the day, and every day of the year, to educating the Holy Innocents of our society: the street children.