TAKE THE CHILD AND HIS MOTHER, AND ESCAPE TO EGYPT

HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

The story of the Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family - Jesus, Mary and Joseph - reminds me of that lovely story (the stuff of legend) about their taking refuge in a cave. When Joseph and Mary were on their way to Egypt with the baby Jesus, as night fell they were tired and were forced to seek refuge in a cave. It was very cold that night, and the ground was covered in hoar frost. A tiny little spider spied the holy baby Jesus. The spider was so thrilled! He wanted so much to do something to keep his Lord warm on that cold night. What could he do? Well, he did the best thing that he could do: busily, he span his web, round and round, to-and-fro, up-and-down, right across the entrance to the cave, so as to make a curtain to keep the cold out and the warmth in. Along the path outside the cave, the tramp of soldiers could be heard approaching. These were enemy soldiers, belonging to the forces of cruel King Herod. The soldiers were under orders from the King to search out boy babies and toddlers and kill them on the spot. The soldiers approached the cave and were about to search it, when their captain noticed the spider’s web. That web, stretching right across the entrance to the cave, was covered in hoar frost. “Oh, look at that web!”, remarked the captain to his platoon, “It’s intact, so there can’t be anyone in the cave. If there were, they’d have bust the web getting in. Move on!” And so, the soldiers passed by, leaving the Holy Family undisturbed. The Holy Family was protected and left in peace, all because a tiny little spider had spun his web across the entrance to the cave in which they were taking refuge. And that, so they say is why, to this very day, tinsel is draped around our Christmas trees - for that glittering tinsel represents that spider’s web, white with hoar frost and stretched across the entrance to the cave!

Isn’t that a lovely story? There’s no gift which Jesus ever received that was forgotten. Today, we celebrate the Holy Family as the model for every family across the world to emulate, and we ask that the message of Christ may be received and welcomed into each of them. Our story of the spider and the web conveys so effectively the idea of protection, doesn’t it? So too does the story of the Flight into Egypt, where the primary intention is the protection of the Lord Himself, the baby Jesus. Both these stories highlight an important aspect of family life. Why Egypt? During the troubled centuries in the time before Christ, Egypt was a land of refuge for Jewish people. When tyranny and persecutions made life at home intolerable for the Jews, great numbers of them sought refuge in Egypt. Apparently, there were more than a million Jews in Alexandria, and at the time of Christ, every city in Egypt had a community of Jews. 

The angel said to Joseph in a dream (cf. The Gospel: Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23): rise up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. This is key, because dreams in the Bible are always important theologically. The dream is there to tell Joseph that it was not the right time to put up a fight. Why not? Because the baby Jesus needed his family’s current protection to ensure the future protection He Himself was going to bring to the whole world. Joseph, good man that he was, immediately did as the angel instructed him. He took the family and sought refuge in another part of the Roman Empire, in Egypt, so as to protect the lives of the baby and the mother. Later, the Holy Family would return to their home country and settle in Nazareth. 

Now, at this juncture, has your mind made the link between the situation in the world back then and the situation in the world today? Can you see that certain governments past and present are guilty of making life unbearable for their people, so much so that people have to flee from their homelands? Isn’t this what we see happening today? What can we, as a faith community, do to help such people and nations? Pope Francis has been a front-liner in this by helping to resettle asylum seekers. There are several things we ourselves can do to contribute to peace and the protection of human beings and peoples. Perhaps the story of the tiny little spider and the web could help each one of us to see how we might contribute in practical terms, no matter how little that individual contribution might be. For a start, we can all remember in our prayers those families who are frantically seeking refuge in foreign lands, that they may find the support they need. We can also pray for governments with rulers as cruel as Herod, that the minds and policies of people in power may be changed.

Let’s go on to consider two particular virtues to cultivate in our family lives, as proposed in both the First Reading (Eccl. 3:2-6, 12-14) and the Second Reading (Col. 3: 12-21). These are the virtues of forgiveness and patience. 

We all make mistakes. We know that all too well. We excuse ourselves by saying that no-one is perfect. Sometimes we act badly out of anger or when we are prompted by spite. Most times, though, we behave badly out of sheer ignorance. The one fault which children apparently find very difficult to overlook in their parents, and which parishioners find hard to tolerate in their priests, turns out to be the vice of impatience. Almost any personal fault can be condoned or suffered to some extent - but continual displays of impatience will eventually drive children from the home, and people from the Church. The Readings today encourage us to give other people a second chance. Furthermore, in practising these virtues of forgiveness and patience, we do more than give people a second chance: we ourselves benefit from being introduced to a wonder hidden within them and within all of us together: “The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same”. 

Finally, we must always remember that the family should be the primary place of protection for each one of its members. Today, shouldn’t our individual families be fighting to protect and preserve for future generations the culture of Faith, the moral codes and the Christian discipline against the social pressures and unhealthy policies prevalent in our world? Shouldn’t we be fighting to protect the bedrock of society, the family, against such iniquitous pressures and policies? On the other hand, shouldn’t we wake up to the fact that there are times when, like the infant Jesus, we have to allow ourselves to be protected, guided and counselled by powers way beyond merely human ones? That there are times when we must surrender to flight, in order to allow the seeds planted in us by God to grow and to mature in God’s good time for use at the most appropriate time? It ought to seem clearer to us now that, in the struggles of present-day life, caution and restraint are needed. Don’t be inclined to respond to each slight provocation; don’t allow yourself to be easily provoked (cf. Eccl. 7:9). As each and every one of us cultivates the virtues of forgiveness and patience, collectively we can enhance the dignity of family life. May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph continue to inspire us today. Amen. God bless you.