Reading
Mt 2:13-18
When the magi 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 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.
When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.
Meditation
The lack of historical traces on the massacre of the innocents, apart from what Matthew reported, is probably due to the irrelevance of the fact compared to other massacres of much larger proportions. Bethlehem was a village of about a thousand inhabitants and the number of males under the age of two who had been killed by Herod could not have been more than a few dozen.
In this episode of Luke's Gospel we see once again Joseph warned in a dream by an angel. Joseph readily obeys the order given him by the messenger of God; that same night he embarks on a risky journey with scarcity of means. His courageous and unconditional obedience reminds us that of Abraham.
The "holy family" will stay in Egypt until Herod's death. She will be forced to dwell far from the Temple, among the people who do not know the God of Israel. We too are called to preserve our faith in a hostile and unbelieving world, to take care of our God, who has accepted to become a creature in the custody of a man and a woman.
Israel, "son of God", had been called from Egypt at the time of Moses (Hos 11:1); likewise Jesus, the Son of God, will have to be hidden in this foreign land, from which he will be called for a new exodus. Rama is a city located seven kilometers north of Jerusalem. The lament of Rachel, who died giving birth to Benjamin, becomes the expression of a pain so strong that it can be heard from a great distance. The prophets of the Old Testament mention Rama on several occasions related to sadness and mourning (Is 10:29; Jer 31:15; Hos 5:8), making the city a symbolic place of affliction.
The flight into Egypt represents a test for Mary and Joseph, who show humility and obedience to God's will and accept the invitation to hide in a foreign land.
Sometimes we would like to defend our cause "with the sword", when God simply asks us to place our trust in him, disarming our will to power and awaiting his call at the established hour.
The episode of the flight into Egypt shows that the persecution of Christ begins from his birth and thus the passive, involuntary testimony of these infants becomes a prefiguration of the passion of Jesus, with which they are associated. The innocent martyrs shed their blood for him, and he will shed it for them.
It is not a question of a "useless" death because the blood of these children rises to heaven shouting justice to God; like the blood of the just Abel, and that of so many victims of wars, persecutions, poverty. A story of violence and injustice where the rejection by the rulers of this world of the royalty of Christ, hidden in the fragility of a child, is manifested. In this little creature there is hope for a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21,1).
Prayer
Hear, Lord, the cry of the innocent that rises from the earth to you; free us from the oppression of the violent man and make us capable of accepting the grace that manifests itself in weakness. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
