Our Lady of Sorrows Part III
The Flight into Egypt
N.B. This is part three in a series. Part I can be found here and Part II can be found here.
“Out of Egypt have I called my son.” Matthew 2:15
King Herod
It was not too long after Mary received the Prophecy of Simeon1 that she began to see it unfold before her eyes. Her son, who was foretold by Simeon to be a sign that will be contradicted, has His life threatened by King Herod.2 The Gospel of Matthew tells us that King Herod sought to obtain the whereabouts of the Child through the Magi in order to kill Him. Herod summons the chief priests and scribes in order to ascertain where this newborn king was to be born. The chief priests and scribes quote the prophet Micah and his prophecy that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem:
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore, he shall give them up until the time when she who has labor pains has brought forth; then the rest of his brethren shall return to the sons of Israel.” Micah 5:2-3
This prophecy foretells the coming of the Messiah and His royal lineage, being from the family of King David, this child will be the ruler of Israel and exercise a legitimate kingship over the Jewish people. Further, the language of the prophecy tells us of the dual origin of the child. On the one hand, the child is to be born in Bethlehem. On the other hand, His origin is from ancient days. These two origins, one temporal and one eternal, show forth the dual natures of the child Himself, fully Divine and fully human.
It should not be lost on us that the scribes and chief priests go to a prophecy of the Messiah in order to ascertain where this child is to be born. This is a time period of great strife under the crushing authority of Rome, and they must have been looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. But even at this point, the chief priests and scribes were rejecting Christ. St. John sums it up in his Gospel:
“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 11 He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.” John 1:10-11.
This is indicative of the Prophecy of Simeon:
“Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising on many in Israel, and for a sign of contradiction.” Luke 2:33
After finding and giving worship to the Christ child, the Magi are warned not to return to Herod. It is here that Herod, furious that he had been tricked, decreed that all male children under two years of age in Bethlehem, were to be slaughtered.3 Imagine the sorrow of the Blessed Mother in knowing that her Divine Son is sought after in His infancy to be killed. No sooner had the Holy Family returned to Bethlehem from Jerusalem after the presentation of the temple than they were sent on another, much longer journey.
The Journey to Egypt
“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” Matthew 2: 13-15
There are several parallels here between Christ and one of His Old Testament types, Moses. Both children are sought after by a vicious ruler,4 both are saved by a family member,5 both are protected for a time in Egypt,6 and both return to their home and their people after a time of exile.7 Thus, the early life of Moses foreshadows the early life of Christ.
On the part of Mary, this flight into Egypt is the second sword that pierces her heart.8 The Evangelist tells us that St. Joseph, after having been directed in a dream, arose that same night and started on the journey to Egypt. St. Alphonsus Ligouri comments:
“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,9 after the sad prophecy of Saint Simeon… always carry her sorrow with her in the continual remembrance of the passion of her Son.”10
The journey to Egypt was long and arduous. St. Alphonsus gives us a distance of nearly 300 miles, 200 of which were desert, of which it probably took the Holy Family upwards of 30 days to traverse the rough road.11
With so much milage to cover and very little shelter or food, the sufferings of Mary and the Holy Family are apparent. We can imagine that St. Joseph had to forage or beg for food, and the Holy Family had to take shelter in caves, much like the one Our Lord was born in.
According to St. Anselm, upon arriving in Egypt, the Holy Family settled in Heliopolis.12
It is there, according to multiple authors, that the Holy Family stayed seven years. St. Basil the Great tells us:
“As they were destitute, it is evident that they must have labored much to provide themselves with the necessities of life.”13
St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother were poor and destitute and so they had to work hard to give the child Jesus the necessities growing up. We can imagine that St. Joseph worked as a carpenter for the community in Heliopolis, doing the best that he could to provide for his family. No doubt, the devotion to St. Joseph the Worker is related to this. Landolph of Saxony adds:
“Mary lived there in the midst of such poverty that at times she had not even a bit of bread to give her Son, when, urged by hunger, He asked for it.”14
The Return
After seven years, the Evangelist tells us that Herod the Great died:
“But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” Matthew 2:19-20
And so, Mary and Joseph set out with the seven-year-old Jesus to return to their home. St. Bonaventure comments on this and considers the difficulty that it must have been traveling with a seven-year-old who cannot be carried and could not walk the distances that His parents could. He says:
“He was too big to be carried, and not strong enough to walk without assistance.”15
St. Alphonsus adds to these comments on what the faithful can learn from this journey of the Holy Family:
“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 for eternity.”16
Our Lady teaches us through her second sorrow that the things of this world pass away and what we should be concentrating on is carrying the divine child with us. The Holy Family suffered for seven years away from family, from their culture, from their home on account of great persecution. Through it, they trusted God to deliver them from their suffering in His time.
St. Matthew quotes the Prophet Hosea in saying:
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Hosea 11:1
This short prophecy foretells the Son of God being exiled to Egypt in the early part of His life. This directly parallels the Nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, His sons and daughters, who were enslaved in Egypt for centuries and were brought out of slavery by God. In the same way, God’s only begotten Son flees to Egypt for a time and then is returned to His homeland by God.
St. Alphonsus ends his reflection on the Flight into Egypt by saying:
“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.”17
St. Alphonsus beautifully ends his reflection with an exhortation to welcome Christ into our hearts. By this, we bring Our Sorrowful Mother great consolation in her sufferings, even now. The greatest way that we can do this is through continuous worthy and devout communions. Each time we receive the Lord in the Eucharist, we are welcoming Him into our hearts, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Each time we receive Him with devotion, we receive the effects of the sacrament in accordance with that devotion. That is, the more devoted we are, the more the Eucharist does for us. These communions bring Our Lady such consolation. She has shown us the path of suffering and how to endure it with grace and patience. Let us bring her consolation through devotion to her Son and her Dolors.
Let us pray:
O most Sorrowful Mother, I compassionate those afflictions which thy most sensitive heart endured during the flight into Egypt and the dwelling there. O beloved Mother, by that afflicted heart, obtain for me the virtue of liberality, especially toward the poor, and the gift of piety.18
Hail Mary…
Cf. Luke 2:22-35.
King Herod was appointed to be king of Jews by the Roman senate in 37 BC. He was not a descendant of the Davidic line and so he had no true claim to the throne. This could be one of the reasons that he desired to have Our Lord killed as he believed this newborn king would threaten his illegitimate reign.
Cf. Matthew 2:16-18.
Cf. Exodus 1:22 and Matthew 2:16-18.
Cf. Exodus 2:1-4 and Matthew 2:13-14.
Cf. Exodus 2:10 and Matthew 2:14.
Cf. Exodus 4:18 and Matthew 2:19-23.
Cf. Luke 2:35.
Note Bene: The title of Divine Mother is not an assertion that Mary is divine in any way. She remains human, in her totality. But she is given the title of Divine Mother because she is the mother of the Divine Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. This, of course, is in relation to the first Marian Dogma which is referred to as, The Divine Maternity. Simply, if Christ is Divine and Mary is His mother, then she is Mother of the Divine. This was formally defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431.
St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Glories of Mary, 416.
See Glories of Mary, 418. St. Alphonsus quotes St. Bonaventure here.
See Enarr. in Matt. ii. St. Alphonsus that the city is known as Old Cairo in his time.
Const. Mon. c.5.
Vit. Christi, p. 1, cap. xiii.
In Vita C. cap. xiii.
The Glories of Mary, 419.
The Glories of Mary, 420.
Blessed Be God, Boonville, NY: Preserving Christian Publications, 2022. 285.
The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were probably helpful for the journey into Egypt.