The Flight into Egypt

Dear Friends,

Last weekend, our Church celebrated the feast of the Epiphany, and this week, we already find the adult Jesus gathering His first disciples, who came to Him through the generosity of John the Baptist.

But the whole community, gathered for Eucharist on weekends, is not given a chance to concentrate on the Holy Family, refugees from the violence of Herod as it is told in Matthew 2.13-18. The Gospel for the Feast of Holy Innocents, December 28, does tell us of the flight into Egypt, but most of us are not at Mass that day to hear it and to reflect on its meaning for us today.

The flight into Egypt is a way of realizing that God accompanies us in our darkest moments, when we leave all things behind except what we can carry.

Some Scripture scholars trace the route of travel of the Holy Family from Bethlehem to Ascalon in Gaza, then through Rafah and the coast road down to Egypt. Sound familiar? Today, Palestinians are trapped in Gaza and can’t pass through the Rafah Border Crossing into Egypt without proper documentation. The plight of the refugees continues.

Left behind as the Holy Family flees are the families with children two years old and under, to be subjected to the cruelty of Herod. Elizabeth, Zachary, and little John lived in the targeted area. Don’t you wonder how they escaped?

But back to the Holy Family. There are many stories told in the Coptic Orthodox Church about the movements of the family as they sought safety. The tourism branch of the Egyptian Government today has recently created the Holy Family Trail, leading pilgrims and tourists to various sites that, in the Coptic tradition, are stopping off points for the Holy Family as they made their way.

One of those sites has a true historical accuracy -- the Church of Saint Sergius (Abu Serga) in Cairo. Contained within the massive church is the Cave of Refuge, where Jesus, Mary and Joseph were sheltered. (Still another cave in the story of Jesus! Go back to my Christmas Eve blog for others.)

You and I are not the only ones who see this story come alive in another day. Others have meditated on its reappearance over the centuries. In the early 1940s, Thomas Merton wrote a poem about the flight into Egypt in his time.

                Through every precinct of the wintry city
                Squadroned iron resounds upon the streets;
                Herod’s police
                Shudder the dark steps of the tenements
                At the business about to be done.

                Neither look back upon thy stary country.
                Nor hear what rumors crowd across the dark
                Where blood runs down those holy walls
                Nor from a childish blessing with Thy hand
                Toward that fiery spiral of exulting souls!

                Go, Child of God, upon the singing desert
                Where with eyes of flame,
                The roaring lion keeps Thy road from harm.
                                (Thomas Merton, 30 Poems, 1944)

In our time, or any time of war and destruction, we are never finished experiencing the flight into Egypt.

~ Sister Joan Sobala