Children Good and Bad

Bethlehem, id est, Judaea, martyrum sanguine redundante. Herodis vero furor et infantium interfectio, populi Judaici in Christianos saevientis est forma: existimantis se beatorum Martyrum caede posse in omnium fide et professione Christi nomen exstinguere. Sed gloriosus per prophetam neci eorum honor redditur, dicentem, Vox in Rama audita est, ploratus et ululatus multus, rachel plorans filios suos: et noluit consolari, quia non sunt. Rachel Jacob uxor fuit diu sterilis; sed nullum ex his quos genuit amisit. Verum haec in Genesi Ecclesiam typum praetulit. Non igitur illius vox et ploratus auditur, quae nullum habuit amissorum filiorum dolorem, sed hujus Ecclesiae diu sterilis, nunc vero fecundae. Hujus ploratus ex filiis, non idcirco quia peremptos dolebat, auditur; sed quia ab his perimebantur, quos primum genitos filios retinere voluisset. Denique consolari se noluit quae dolebat. Non enim non erant ii, qui mortui putabantur: in aeternitatis enim profectum per martyrii gloriam efferebantur.   In Evangelium Matthaei Commentarius, Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis

Bethlehem, that is, Judea, overflows with the blood of martyrs. Indeed the fury of Herod and the murder of infants is a form of the savagery of the Jews against the Christians, thinking that by the slaughter of blessed martyrs it is possible to extinguish the faith and the profession of Christ in everyone. But a glorious honour is given to the slain through the prophet, who says, 'A voice in Rama is heard, weeping and crying out greatly, Rachel weeping for her children, and she will not be comforted because they were not.' Rachel wife of Jacob was for a long time barren, but she did not lose those born. In Genesis she is brought forth as a type of Church. It is not therefore her voice and weeping that is heard, since she had no sorrow for lost children, but it is the voice of the Church, long barren, now in truth fertile. This weeping for her children was heard not because they were killed but because they were killed by those first born whom she wished to retain as sons. This is why she did not want to be comforted in her grief. And indeed it is not that the first mentioned should be thought not to have died, for from eternity they were marked to bring forth the glory of martyrdom Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Saint Hilary of Poitiers