Massacre of the Innocents [Steyn]

National Review ^ | 12/21/2012 | Mark Steyn

[Servant of the Cross]

The Newtown killings ought to occasion a little modesty and circumspection.

‘Lullay, Thou little tiny Child, by by, lully, lullay . . . ”

The 16th-century Coventry Carol, a mother’s lament for her lost son, is the only song of the season about the other children of Christmas — the first-born of Bethlehem, slaughtered on Herod’s orders after the Magi brought him the not-so-glad tidings that an infant of that city would grow up to be King of the Jews. As Matthew tells it, even in a story of miraculous birth, in the midst of life is death. The Massacre of the Innocents loomed large over the Christian imagination: In Rubens’s two renderings, he fills the canvas with spear-wielding killers, wailing mothers, and dead babies, a snapshot, one assumes, of the vaster, bloodier body count beyond the frame. Then a century ago the Catholic Encyclopedia started digging into the numbers. The estimated population of Bethlehem at that time was around a thousand, which would put the toll of first-born sons under the age of two murdered by King Herod at approximately 20 — or about the same number of dead children as one school shooting on a December morning in Connecticut. “Every man a king,” promised Huey Long. And, if it doesn’t quite work out like that, well, every man his own Herod.

[AnAmericanMother]

Here is the little door . . .

Here is the little door, lift up the latch, oh lift!
We need not wander more but enter with our gift;
Our gift of finest gold,
Gold that was never bought nor sold;
Myrrh to be strewn about his bed;
Incense in clouds about his head;
All for the Child who stirs not in his sleep.
But holy slumber holds with ass and sheep.

Bend low about his bed, for each he has a gift;
See how his eyes awake, lift up your hands, O lift!
For gold, he gives a keen-edged sword
(Defend with it Thy little Lord!)
For incense, smoke of battle red;
Myrrh for the honoured happy dead;
Gifts for his children terrible and sweet,
Touched by such tiny hands and
Oh such tiny feet.

- Frances Chesterton

[Mrs. Don-o]

Oh my. Thank you for this.

[LibertarianLiz]

We won’t ever find meaning in murders committed by lunatics. It just happens.

I just heard earlier today, Mayor (Nanny) Bloomberg stating definitively that these events "only happen in America".

I believe the nutcase that shot up an entire island of vacationing youngsters a few years ago, was just on trial in NORWAY.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Just read it a second and third time, with the music. The thought of that battle red.

[AnAmericanMother]

It is splendid and incredibly moving. Frances Chesterton (G.K.'s wife) wrote it for a Christmas play - that must have been one terrifying play is all I can say.

Howells achieved a perfect marriage of text and music - he was working for the Tudor music revival at Westminster Cathedral at the time, and the setting is partly English Renaissance and partly modern.

I found it about 2 weeks ago and have been listening to it on and off. I found the score on CPDL and have lateraled it to our choirmaster for possible inclusion in the rotation.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The knife attack WOUNDED twenty-two children.**** Well maybe these school massacres will make you happy. Yan Yanming, 21 Nov. 26 2004 Ruzhou China 9 dead 3 injured. Knife weapon Takuma, Mamoru, 37 June 8 2001 Ikeda, Osaka Japan 8 dead 15 injured. Knife type weapon Zheng Minsheng, 41 (郑明生) March 23 2010, Nanping China 8 dead 5 injured. Knife. Bai Ningyang, 18(白宁阳) May 8 2006 Shiguan China 12 dead 5 wounded. Knife weapon and arson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers:_School_massacres There! Feel better?

[DuncanWaring]

As the comedian Andy Borowitz tweeted, “When the 2nd Amendment was written the most lethal gun available was the musket.”

And when the 1st Amendment was written state-of-the-art in media was "movable type".

Does he advocate restrictions on the media comparable to those he no-doubt advocates on firearms?

[holly go-rightly]

this one really stands out. Thanks for the ping.