Pope John Paul has consistently preached the gospel of life against the culture of death that marks our modern world. The Feast of the Holy Innocents is a call to us to reflect on our own commitment to this gospel of life, the source of a true civilization of love. Herod rejected the Messiah, the source of life, and so it was inevitable that he would eventually destroy innocent life. Herod was not the first king in human history to murder innocent children, nor, unfortunately, was he the last. Looking back over this year, we would be horrified if we could count the number of innocent children who have been killed. The name of the Russian town Beslan will surely enter our language as a symbol of the death of innocent children. It will stand with other names - Auschwitz, Belsen, Dachau, Hiroshima, Nagasaki - as a terrible reminder of the cruelty that is a sure product of every rejection of the gospel of life.