Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23

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, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. 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 thereuntil the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

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.

Discussion Questions:

1. When have your prayers and dreams been a source of guidance in listening to God about the needs of your family?
2. In what ways is your family an experience of holiness for you?
3. In our family interactions, we act in Christ’s name. How does your understanding of “holiness” express itself in your behavior with family interactions?
4. Has learning to accept your family’s imperfections helped you to grow in patience, tolerance, forgiveness and love? Why or why not?
5. After reading today’s reflection, how does it expand or challenge your ideas of what it means to have a holy family? 

Biblical Context

Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23
Margaret Nutting Ralph, PHD

We will understand a great deal more of the significance of Matthew’s stories surrounding Jesus’ birth if we remember that Matthew’s audience is primarily Jewish. As Matthew teaches his post-resurrection insights concerning Jesus’ role and identity, he is helping his Jewish contemporaries understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to them and the embodiment of the history of the people. 

In Matthew’s Gospel, and only in Matthew’s Gospel, we read about the slaughter of the babies that caused the angel to tell Joseph to take his family to Egypt. This story would remind a Jewish reader of Moses. There was also a slaughter of babies when Moses was born. That is why the infant Moses was put into the basket and placed on the riverbank, where the Pharaoh’s daughter found him (see Exod 1:15-2:10). By weaving this image from Moses’ birth around his story of Jesus’ birth Matthew is teaching that Jesus is the new Moses. This will be a theme throughout Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus will be presented as the new Moses who has authority from God to give a new law. 

Matthew tells us that Joseph and his family stayed in Egypt until the death of Herod. A Jewish reader would be well aware that Joseph, Jesus’ father, was not the first Joseph to flee to Egypt and thereby save his family. Joseph the patriarch also fled to Egypt when his brothers plotted to kill him. Later, when there was a famine, Joseph’s family had to come to Egypt and ask Joseph for food. Joseph became God’s instrument of salvation for his family from famine and death (see Gen 37:1-47:52). Jesus will save not only his family, but the whole human race. Jesus will feed his people, not with bread, but with Eucharist. He will give them not just an extended life on earth, but eternal life. 

When the danger is over, an angel tells Joseph to return to the land of Israel. In telling this part of the story Matthew again uses the formula that we noted last Sunday: “… that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled— ” Matthew says, “He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son” The prophet whom Matthew is quoting is Hosea. In Hosea the words my son refer to the nation Israel. Hosea, in recalling the exodus experience and teaching his contemporaries about God’s faithful love, says: 

When Israel was a child, I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. (Hos 11:1) 

Once again Matthew is teaching that Jesus is the embodiment of the history of his people and the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to them. 

Obedient to the angel’s guidance, Joseph takes his family to Nazareth. Matthew tells us that Jesus’ being raised in Nazareth also fulfills the words of the prophets: “He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, I He shall be called a Nazorean.’” There is no single Old Testament source for this quotation. Scripture scholars suggest that Matthew is calling to his readers’ minds other great historical figures in the history of Israel: Samson, who was a “Nazirite,” who saved his people during the period of the judges (Judg 13:1-16:31), as well as David, the great king. Perhaps there is a word play on Isaiah 11:1 that says of David: “But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, / and from his roots a bud shall blossom. 

As we interpreted today’s Gospel, we have treated plot elements in Matthew’s story, the slaughter of the babies and the flight itself, as images woven around Matthew’s account of events. The reason we have done this is that these plot elements occur in no other story, including Luke’s infancy narratives. Scripture scholars believe that Matthew employed a literary device of the time called midrash. By weaving Old Testament images around New Testament events. The stories are designed not to describe events exactly as they occurred, but to teach a post-resurrection audience what was understood about Jesus after hos resurrection. Jesus was a Devine person. Through Jesus, all of God’s covenant promises to the Israelites have been fulfilled.

     

Journey of Love

Reflection
Hoffsman Ospino

Being a husband and father defines much of my identity and how I relate to the people I love most in this world. They are vocations that, with the passing of time, I have come to cherish without limit.

At times I wish I had been better prepared to be a husband. The truth is that no one knows what kind of spouse one is called to be until making the radical decision to love someone with spousal love. Love is a journey of discovery.

I can say something similar about being a parent. There is no “toddler college,” or “teenager university,” or “young adult institute” for parents. You learn as you go. Each child is their own world and a window into the mystery of life. One grows as a parent as one embraces the calling to love our children as God’s gifts.

Most likely Joseph had no idea that one day he would have to migrate with his family to a foreign country to give his family a chance to live. How much could the young Mary know about being a wife and a mother at such a tender age? What could the young couple know about raising a child who was human and divine? I cannot put myself in their shoes, yet my own family experience has also confronted me with interesting questions.

St. Paul offers us a good blueprint to navigate the vicissitudes of family life: Put on “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.” Most importantly, “put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.” When I am intentionally aware of these virtues, I am a better husband and father.

Selections from Breaking Open the Lectionary: Lectionary Readings in Their Biblical Context for RCIA, Faith Sharing Groups, and Lectors—Cycle A, by Margaret Nutting Ralph, Copyright © 2006 by Margaret Nutting Ralph. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com.

Hosffman Ospino is professor of theology and education at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry.