Of the Flight of Jesus to Egypt
by Saint Alphonsus Liguori
As the stag, wounded by an arrow, carries the pain with him wherever he goes, because he carries
with him the arrow which has wounded him, so did the Divine Mother, after the
sad prophecy
of Saint Simeon, as we have already seen in the consideration of the first dolor, always carry her sorrow
with her in the continual remembrance of the
Passion of her
Son. Hailgrino, explaining
this passage of the Canticles, "The hairs
of thy head, as the purple of the king, bound in the channel,''
says that these purple hairs were Mary's continual thoughts of the Passion of Jesus,
which kept the blood which was one day to flow from His
wounds always before her
eyes: "Thy mind, O Mary, and thy thoughts, steeped in the
blood of our Lord's Passion, were always filled with sorrow, as if they actually beheld
the blood flowing from His wounds." Thus her
Son Himself was that arrow
in the heart of Mary;
and the more amiable He
appeared
to her, so much the more
deeply did the thought of losing Him by so cruel a death
wound
her heart.
Let us now consider the second sword of sorrow which
wounded
Mary, in the flight of her
Infant Jesus into Egypt
from the persecution of Herod.
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Slaughter of the Innocents -
by DUCCIO di Buoninsegna -
from Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena |
Herod, having heard that the expected Messiah was born, foolishly
feared
that He would deprive him
of his kingdom. Hence Saint
Fulgentius, reproving him for his folly, thus addresses him:
"Why art thou troubled, O Herod? This King Who is born
comes not to conquer kings by the sword, but to subjugate them wonderfully by His death."
The impious Herod, therefore, waited to hear
from the holy Magi where the King
was born, that he might take His life; but finding himself
deceived, he
ordered all the infants who could be found in the neighborhood of Bethlehem
to be put to death. Then it was that the
angel
appeared in a dream to Saint Joseph, and desired
him to "Arise, and take the Child and His Mother, and fly into Egypt."
According to Gerson, Saint Joseph immediately, on that
very night, made the order known to Mary;
and taking the Infant Jesus, they set out on
their journey, as it is sufficiently evident from the Gospel
itself:
"Who arose and took the Child and His Mother, by night, and
retired into Egypt." O God,
says Blessed Albert the Great, in the name of Mary,
"must He then fly from men, Who came to save men?"
Then the afflicted Mother
knew that already the prophecy of Simeon concerning her Son
began to be verified: "He is set for a sign that shall be
contradicted." Seeing that He
was no sooner born than He was persecuted unto death,
what anguish, writes Saint John
Chrysostom, must the intimation of that cruel exile
of herself and her
Son have caused in her
heart: "Flee
from Thy friends to strangers, from God's temple to the temples of devils. What greater
tribulation than that a new-born Child, hanging from Its mother's breast, and she too in
poverty, should with Him be forced to fly?"
 Any one may imagine what Mary must have
suffered
on this journey. To Egypt the distance was great. Most authors agree that
it was three hundred miles; so that it was a journey of upwards of thirty
days. The road was, according to Saint Bonaventure's
description of it, "rough, unknown, and little frequented."
It was in the winter season; so that they had to travel in snow, rain, and wind, through
rough and dirty roads. Mary was then
fifteen
years of age a delicate young woman, unaccustomed to such journeys. They had no one to
attend upon them. Saint Peter Chrysologus says, "Joseph and Mary have no male or female servants; they were themselves
both masters and servants." O God,
what a touching sight must it have been to have beheld that tender Virgin,
with her new-born Babe
in her arms, wandering through the world!
"But how," asks Saint Bonaventure,
"did they obtain their food? Where did they repose at
night? How were they lodged? What can they have eaten but a piece of hard bread, either
brought by Saint Joseph or begged as an alms? Where can they have slept on such a road
(especially on the two hundred miles of desert, where there were neither houses nor inns,
as authors relate), unless on the sand or under a tree in a wood, exposed to the air and
the dangers of robbers and wild beasts, with which Egypt abounded. Ah, had any one met
these three greatest personages in the world, for whom could he have taken them but for
three poor wandering beggars."
 They
resided in Egypt,
according to Brocard and Jansenius, in a district called
Maturea; though Saint Anselm says that they lived in the
city of Heliopolis, or at Memphis, now called old Cairo.
Here let us consider the great poverty they
must have suffered during the seven years which, according to Saint
Antoninus, Saint Thomas, and others, they spent there. They were
foreigners unknown, without revenues, money,
or relations, barely able to support themselves by their humble efforts.
"As they were destitute," says Saint
Basil, "it is evident that they must have labored
much to provide themselves with the necessaries of life." Landolph
of Saxony has, moreover, written (and let this be a consolation for the poor),
that "Mary lived there in the midst of such poverty that at
times she had not even a bit of bread to give to her Son, when, urged by hunger, He asked
for it."
After the death of Herod,
Saint Matthew
relates, the
angel
again appeared to Saint Joseph in a dream and directed
him to return to Judea.
Saint Bonaventure, speaking of this return, considers how much greater
the Blessed Virgin's sufferings
must have been on account of the pains of Jesus being so much increased as He was then about seven
years of age an age, remarks the Saint, at which "He was too big to be carried, and not strong enough to walk without
assistance."
The sight, then, of Jesus and Mary wandering as fugitives
through the world teaches us that we also must live as
pilgrims here
below, detached from the goods which the world
offers us, and which we must soon leave to enter eternity: "We have not here a lasting city, but seek one that is to come.''
To which Saint Augustine adds: "Thou art a
guest; thou givest a look, and passest on." It also teaches us to
embrace
crosses, for without them
we cannot live in this world. Blessed Veronica da Binasco, an Augustinian
nun, was carried in spirit to accompany Mary
with the Infant Jesus on their journey into Egypt;
and after it the Divine Mother said, "Daughter,
thou hast seen with how much difficulty we have reached this country; now learn that no
one receives graces without suffering." Whoever wishes to feel less the sufferings of this life must go in company with Jesus and Mary:
"Take the Child and His Mother." All sufferings become light, and even
sweet and desirable, to him who by his love bears this Son
and this Mother in his heart.
Let us, then, love them;
let us console Mary
by welcoming in our hearts her Son,
Whom men even now continue to persecute by their sins.
Example
The most holy Virgin one day appeared to Blessed
Collette, a Franciscan nun, and showed her the Infant Jesus in a basin, torn to pieces, and then
said: "Thus it is that sinners continually treat my Son,
renewing His death and my sorrows. My daughter, pray for them, that they may be converted."
To this we may add another vision, which the venerable sister Joanna of Jesus and
Mary, also a Franciscan nun, had. She was one day meditating on
the Infant Jesus
persecuted
by Herod, when she heard a great noise, as
of armed men pursuing some one; and immediately she saw before her a most beautiful
child, who, all out of breath and running, exclaimed: "O
my Joanna, help Me, conceal Me! I am Jesus of Nazareth; I am flying from sinners, who wish
to kill Me, and persecute Me as Herod did. Do thou save Me."
Prayer
Then, O Mary,
even after thy Son hath died by the hands of men, who persecuted Him unto death,
these ungrateful men have not yet ceased persecuting Him by their sins,
and continue to afflict thee, O sorrowful Mother!
And, O God, I also have been one of these.
Ah, my most sweet Mother, obtain me tears to weep over such ingratitude.
By the sufferings thou didst endure in thy journey to Egypt,
assist me in the journey in which I am now engaged towards eternity;
that thus I may at length be united with thee
in loving my persecuted Savior in the kingdom of the blessed.
Amen.
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