Egypt and the Holy Family

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“And when they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod so that what the Lord had said to the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son’” (Matt. 2:13-15).

Joseph does not hesitate to obey. Regardless of the hardship involved, he got up, took the Child and His Mother by night, and went to Egypt.

He could have called out to God and said, ‘Could you not send a whole host of the heavenly angels to protect your Child?’ But there is no such discussion.

We see immediate obedience to fulfill the will of God in Joseph. It's as though he has learned from the initial journey to Bethlehem, and also on previous occasions, to trust in God, to have great faith, great hope, to face the unknown, to go forward in his pilgrimage of hope with great abandonment to God's plans, and with great serenity and joy.

It was also to obey with great urgency. He went by night.

He didn't say, ‘Well, tomorrow will be easier. There will be daylight, we can see the road better’—and a whole pile of other things. He's eager to obey, forgetting himself—sacrificing himself for the Holy Family, for their safety, and living out this mission of being the custodian of Mary and of Jesus, their guardian. In this, St. Joseph gives us a wonderful example for all fathers of families, all those who have care for others.

He didn't know what was going to happen in Egypt. He had no money. It was a foreign land. He probably didn't know the language or the customs. He was really, truly an immigrant, starting from scratch, beginning again to live out his vocation.

Possibly, there was going to be loneliness in Egypt: no family support, close relatives, friends. They were strangers to everybody—not being able to explain too much to too many people. We see a great fortitude in Joseph's life to face the difficulties, to put up with the problems, not to give in or to crack under the strain.

At the same time, we see them with a great detachment. He's already created a little bit of a nest, a haven there in Bethlehem with great effort, and now suddenly, again, they're asked to change all their plans and go do something different.

They're detached from their new stability and security. They set out once again with great rectitude of intention to give glory to God: to focus on the goal of his life, which is holiness and the mission. He does this with great supernatural outlook.

In Egypt, Joseph awaited with patient trust. The angels noticed that he could safely return home. He was told to remain there. Like Abraham sent to an undisclosed destination, Joseph was sent to Egypt for an undisclosed period of time. They don't know how long it's going to last.

It’s like a message to all families: in difficult, or suboptimal, or unwanted situations; changes of plans; low moments; reversals of fortune, we don’t know how long it’s going to last.

Yet he's willing to fulfill the plans of God as spoken to him: “Stay there until I tell you.” He's also told that “Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy him.” It's no small risk leading them to flee. They flee in terror of the butcher who really wants to kill and he's going to prove his will with all his might.

At the back of his mind during this journey, there's a certain anxiety and fear. Before Bethlehem, it was anxiety about what might happen to Mary on the way to Bethlehem, and now it's anxiety for the safety of the Christ Child and Our Lady.

We're told, “He stayed there until the death of Herod so that what the Lord had said to the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son’” (Matt. 2:15). All the time he's fulfilling the prophecies. He has a great sense of doing what God asked him to do.

The Gospel doesn't tell us how long Mary, Joseph, and the Child remained in Egypt. But presumably, it wasn't hours or days—more likely weeks or months. Perhaps years.

They had to make a whole new beginning—find a new source of income, because they certainly needed to eat, they needed to find a home, they needed to find employment.

All the same challenges that he faced in Bethlehem are now faced again in Egypt. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, in his recent letter, says, “It doesn't take too much imagination to fill in those details. The Holy Family had to face concrete problems like every other family, like so many of our migrant brothers and sisters, who, today, risk their lives to escape misfortune and hunger” (Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter, Patris corde, Point 5, December 8, 2020).

The Holy Father, in the many statements and actions of his pontificate, has wanted us to have a special place in our hearts for migrants. He has placed a new invocation to Our Lady in the Litany of Loreto: “Consolation of Migrants.”

In this year of St. Joseph, we could try to look out in a special way to see: what can I do for some migrant families close to me, near me, or even far away from me, so that I could try to make their journey a little easier, like we would have wanted to make the journey of Joseph a little easier.

Joseph undertook that long and difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered, to fulfill the civil decree—that census of Caesar Augustus—and to have Jesus recorded in the registry of the empire (Luke 2:1-5).

But now the reasons for fleeing are different. There's no civil decree. Instead of happily going to fulfill the civil decree, now he's running from the civil authorities!

The Holy Father says, “In this regard, I consider St. Joseph the special patron of all those forced to leave their native lands because of war, hatred, persecution, and poverty” (ibid.).

We all know many people who may have to leave their village, their town, their land, their country. But we have to try and help them see all these things as part of the plans of God for their life, for their vocation. And even though that may bring difficulties, challenges, problems, and pain, and so many things, we know “God works all things for the good” (cf. Rom. 8:28).

We try to sanctify the ordinary challenges of our life, our marriage, of our work, of our family. God doesn't see us short; He repays a hundredfold in all sorts of ways.

The Holy Father says, “St. Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity, and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one's own labor” (Patris corde, Point 6).

In Joseph, we see a great model of the worker. We can ask him this year to help us to love our own work, to put more effort into our work, try and do it as best as we can—finishing all the details—and to offer that work well done to God, as Joseph must have done. He was called to be the model in the human sphere for the growing Jesus, and he must have given very good example.

We could ask him to help all the people we know who may be looking for work, or who may be undergoing temporary unemployment, or retrenchment, or even retirement—to look after them in those moments, to help them to make a new beginning, or to discover new talents.

We can focus on work in a new way as we get older—maybe develop a new means of employment, a new talent, a new job, a new way of being useful and earning a salary.

We know that “at times, unemployment reaches record levels, even in nations,” says the Holy Father, “that for decades have enjoyed a certain degree of prosperity.” He said, “There’s a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which St. Joseph is an exemplary patron” (ibid.).

That “beginning again” in his work must have taken a lot of effort, a lot of trial, maybe some frustration. He had to try this, he had to try that—maybe there was a lot of trial and error.

But there was focus, there was effort, there was perseverance. These are all virtues that can grow in the course of our professional lives. As we try new things, we try to work in new areas where, perhaps, we can give employment to other people.

The Holy Father says, “Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion. It becomes an opportunity for the fulfillment not only of oneself, but also of that primary cell of society which is the family” (ibid.).

We try to teach our children to work well, to do their homework well. It's a good thing to check their homework, even in primary school, not just to see that they've done it, but also to let them see that you value their work.

‘And if this is the best you can do, then that’s okay with us. But we want you to do the best, to put your whole heart and mind into fulfilling that goal that you have in front of you.’ It may be a small thing, but it's an important thing, as we form our children along the lines of work well done.

In Egypt, Joseph must have had to be very patient—patient with the plans of God which work themselves out over time; patient with his new country; patient with himself, especially when things didn't work out; patient with Our Lady and her new situation, taking care of a small child; patient with the Child Jesus who possibly woke him up at night, when he really needed his sleep.

“By your patience you will gain possession of your souls” (Luke 21:19), we're told in Scripture. “Charity is patient, charity is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4).

Sometimes God relies on long periods for His plans to work out—projects to grow, plants to grow, seeds to grow, children to mature, our souls to learn new virtues.

The Holy Father says, “A family without work is particularly vulnerable to difficulties, tensions, estrangement, and even breakup. How can we speak of human dignity without working to ensure that everyone is able to earn a decent living?” (Patris corde, Point 6).

All of us, where we are, have to try and think: How can I create work for other people? How can I help migrant families to find work? Perhaps we can give them information—which may be power—or set them on the right track, open their eyes, help their adjustment to their new country to be a little easier.

“Working persons,” the Pope says, “whatever their job may be, are cooperating with God himself, and in some way become creators of the world around us” (ibid.).

Through work, we participate in the development of creation. We participate in the creative power of God. It's a great talent that God has given us—the ability to work.

A habit of study is something we should want to acquire in the course of our life: to be reading new things; to keep abreast of new developments; to be looking, perhaps, for that one idea, whose time has come, that God may give us; or why we could do an immense amount of good in the world, and influence many families, and help them to grow. It's the mystery of our Christian vocation.

And all the time in Egypt, Joseph must have been full of hope, full of hope because he was told to “wait there until I tell you” (Matt. 2:13).

God did not abandon him. He was there all the time beside him, but waiting—using that period for Joseph to grow in virtue, key virtues that were going to make him the great saint that he had to be.

All the little ins and outs that God may permit in our marriage, in our family, in our professional life, all have the same purpose: to lead us to grow in those virtues that God wants us to practice, so that He can lead us to be the saints that He wants us to be.

The Holy Father says, “The crisis of our time, which is economic, social, cultural, and spiritual, can serve as a summons for all of us to rediscover the value, the importance, and the necessity of work for bringing about a new ‘normal’ from which no one is excluded. St. Joseph's work reminds us that God himself, in becoming man, did not disdain work” (ibid.).

God wants us to love our work: our work in the kitchen, our work in the garden, our work in the home of all types, and never to consider any job or any menial task beneath us. Any job that any household manager might do, we should be willing to do ourselves, partly because it can be sanctified, and partly to show our children that every menial task in the home is good.

We have to learn how to be competent, to fulfill different tasks, to be ready for any situation that God may bring us in our life. This should be part of our education and formation, part of the service that we give to other people around us.

“Let us implore St. Joseph the Worker,” he says, “to help us find ways to express our firm conviction that no young person, no person at all, no family should be without work!” (ibid.).

“When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.’ He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.

“But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there, and because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’” (Matt. 2:19-23).

Our Lord gives him instructions, but He doesn't work out all the details. He leaves an awful lot to Joseph’s initiative; wants him to use the human means to solve the problems. He didn't buy him tickets for the plane, or for the train, or for the bus, nor tell him specifically where to go.

Joseph had to keep a sharp ear because there were other dangers around. Archelaus was ruling in the place of his father Herod, so God relied on him to use his common sense, to use his reason and his will.

Again, He warns him in a dream. He has a lot of decisions to make, needs a lot of guidance, needs the help of the Holy Spirit and his guardian angel.

It's no surprise that in the course of our lives, sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. Our Lord wants us to think about things long and deep, sleep on them, look at all the ins and outs of a particular decision. Generally, for decisions that we have to make in our family, the solution to them, the best solution, is nearly always the solution that is best for the children.

Families are an organization that is meant for children. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “children are the supreme gift of marriage” (cf. Catechism, Point 1652). It's all focused there if that is the will of God.

The Holy Father draws our attention to a Polish author (Jan Dobraczyński) who has written a book about St. Joseph called The Shadow of the Father. “He uses the evocative image of a shadow to define Joseph. He says that in his relationship with Jesus, Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father: he watched over him and protected him, never leaving him to go his way” (Patris corde, Point 7).

We could imagine how Joseph must have used every opportunity of the growing child to point that out, to fulfill his role as an educator, which would never end. The educative role of parents does not cease when the children get older. They always have an input, and very often it's a silent input: an input of their virtue, of their presence.

The Holy Father says, “By his eloquent silence, Joseph seems to say the same” (ibid.) as St. Paul said (and as all the other saints): “Be imitators of me!” (1 Cor. 4:16). Our Lord was to say, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly at heart” (Matt. 11:29).

The last line of the Holy Father's letter on St. Joseph for this year says, “We need only ask St. Joseph for the grace of graces: our conversion” (ibid.)—our conversion: to follow in his footsteps as the master of the interior life.

He's the one who dealt most with Our Lady and the Child Jesus. St. Teresa of Avila said he's the best person to lead us into the intimacy of their lives, and to learn from all the experiences that they went through—imagining their sojourn in Egypt, and also imagining their time of beginning again back in Nazareth, which must have been a joy for them, in some ways. But at the same time, time had passed. People had grown.

An awful lot of things had happened in the life of Joseph and Mary that they couldn't talk about too much. They lived out their humble family life in a very ordinary way. Mary went to the well every morning for water. Joseph built up his business and his workshop—all the time, with this great mystery inside them.

Divine Love Incarnate was with them permanently. They were forming the human way because Jesus had to learn everything in the human sphere from the words and from the actions of the parents that God had chosen in this earthly life.

That “beginning again” in Nazareth was also filled with great faith and great joy, and uncertainty about the future. What do we teach Him? How do we teach Him? We try this, we try that—the adventure of fatherhood: of responsible fatherhood and responsible motherhood.

The Church proposes that the Holy Family is a permanent model for us to accompany—to be close to, to invoke, to turn to in moments of difficulties—and maybe see: How did they fix this problem? How did they handle this uncertainty?

St. Paul tells us that we have to try and “be all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22). It's a very good goal for our apostolate.

Preceding those words, Our Lady and St. Joseph must have been trying every day of their lives, every hour of the working day, to be all things to this very special Being that God had placed in their hands, with a growing awareness all the time of the greatness of the mystery of the Incarnation that was before their eyes, and of the mystery of the Redemption that was looming up in front of them.

“Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and your own heart a sword will pierce” (Luke 2:34-35). Simeon had foretold the Cross.

Up to now, all the people who came with God's messages—the angels, the Magi, the shepherds—it was all a story of joy. Simeon is the first one to mention the Cross.

As Joseph and Mary went about their ordinary life, fulfilling their ordinary duties, living out their family life in a somewhat more normal fashion—all the time they were aware of the Cross.

The Cross is not something negative or a punishment, but rather the means Christ uses to redeem the world. The crosses in our own personal marriage or family life, and those of our children, are also the means for us to go to heaven.

Joseph and Mary must have thanked God for the crosses, because they saw the loving hand of their Father God, their heavenly Father, behind all those things. Nothing was outside that particular radar screen. Everything was seen and accepted and lived through with a great supernatural outlook, which helped them to see everything from God's perspective—which is very different from looking at things from just the human perspective.

To see things the way God sees things can give us great peace and serenity. And that's how the Holy Family was able to go about their business as an ordinary family in Nazareth—shining a light now in this different place, and all the families that have to come throughout history.

As children grow, as they enter teenage years, as they ask questions that they didn't ask before, and maybe they're easier to handle or they’re not so easy to handle, but each one of them is a blessing, a gift from God, and a means to our eternal reward—and a reminder to us that we have a job to do, a mission to fulfill. And that this job, this mission, is the means and our invitation to the eternal wedding feast—that eternal happiness that awaits us in heaven.

As Joseph went through all these challenges (from Bethlehem to Egypt, the time in Egypt, the coming back, the journey back, the changes of plans and decisions again, and the readjustment to his previous life in some way), we can ask him for the grace to be very close to Our Lady, and that he might teach us all the wonderful virtues that he is there to teach us.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

SMF