THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI

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A good Sunday to all.

Today’s Gospel text introduces us to the holy family in a particularly difficult time of their history. First, they have to flee to Egypt and then they must return to the land of Israel at the direction of the Lord. In the way the holy family lived this moment, certainly not easy, we will seek to get some messages for our families today.

We will also go beyond what is presented as a chronicle of a painful event that the family of Nazareth had to undergo. We are not facing a journalistic report and, still less, facing a fable. We are all aware that, in narrating this escape to Egypt, the apocryphal gospels have been very creative and have left fantasy course free.

Every so often they mention that there have been miracles … lions and leopards that escort the holy family, the palm trees that lean to offer Mary the dates, Jesus who accelerates the trip because he fears that his parents suffer a lot of heat and, in addition, there are spectacular cures, the angels that accompany and comfort Joseph and Mary for the fatigue of the trip…. If you do not understand the literary genre used by the evangelist Matthew, you risk losing the more important message, the one that more than any other matters to the evangelist.

Bible scholars tell us that we are not in front of a chronicle, but a ‘midrashic Haggadah’.What does it mean? The rabbis of Jesus’ time were accustomed to communicating their teachings, not so much with abstract reasoning or theological disquisitions, with dogmatic formulas —as our catechisms have done later—but through stories, and so they communicated their teachings.

And today’s page is one of those rabbinic stories which refer to episodes of the Old Testament and update them. And today’s story is written by the evangelist Matthew who has taken as inspiration what happened to the people of Israel in Egypt. His goal is not to tell an episode in the life of Jesus but to make us understand who Jesus is and what is his mission to which he has been called.

And he says it through the text we now hear:

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 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.

An angel of the Lord speaks to Joseph and tells him what to do. Who is this angel of the Lord? It is a figure that is frequently found in the bible and does not indicate a character who descends from heaven, as we are used to imagine it. ‘Angel of the Lord’ is a stereotyped formula to indicate that it is the Lord who reveals himself and intervenes in favor of the people. It is God who reveals to Joseph his designs, his will. And the Bible uses this words: ‘angel of the Lord.’ Then the dream. It is another biblical image to present the revelation of the will of the Lord.  

Many revelations in the bible are made through dreams of Old Testament people. Thus, let us remember that Abraham accepted the will of God and the text says that it was in dreams; the same with Jacob; also Joseph’s dream who, later, was taken to Egypt and then became second to Pharaoh. And especially we remember Solomon’s dream in Gibeon. All this to say that God has communicated his will, his projects to a person who was very awake.

This image also appears in the New Testament and it is always in the gospel of Matthew. Six times this evangelist speaks of dreams and only one of these dreams is not metaphorical, that of the wife of Pilate who tells her husband: Be careful because tonight I had nightmares about Jesus of Nazareth, so don’t mess with him, do not mix with the affairs of this man.

The pagans believed in revelation through dreams, but in Israel, this practice was obsolete and condemned. The only way to know the will of the Lord was to go to the prophet. Therefore, the image of the dream is introduced in our text to highlight the inner disposition of Joseph who is always willing to ask the Lord to reveal to him what he should do.

Matthew presents Joseph as the one who always moves in full tune, not with his dreams, but with the dreams of God. This image has already been used by the evangelist as we remember when Joseph is reflecting and seeks to know what the will of the Lord may beregarding Mary who was pregnant by the work of the Holy Spirit and wonders: “What should I do with Mary and the child she carries?” And the Lord reveals his will in dreams.

We can translate it into a much clearer language: it is during prayer, when Joseph lets himself be enlightened on the will of the Lord. It is also one of the ways how the Lord also speaks to each one of us today when we open our hearts and we are available to receive his light; we need to appease all the other lights, all other suggestions, to follow what He tells us.

Here we have the first message for each of us and, especially, for families. The interior disposition of Joseph is what is required of all of us when we want to build a life, not according to our projects, but according to what God wants. This is how the believer lives every moment of his or her life, the pleasant and the painful; everything that happens, even the unexpected, always seeking the light of the Lord to tune into his will.

The second message is directed especially for our families. We take it from an expressionwhich appears four times in a few verses. God says through the angel of the Lord: to the fulfillment of an order: Joseph “rose, took the child and his mother and departed for Egypt.”And twice an expression is repeated: Joseph took the child and his mother and departed

Joseph doesn’t say a word; he listens to the voice of the Lord and immediately set off to do what he has been asked to do. His behavior is modeled according to what his father Abraham has done, to whom the Lord had said: “Get out of your land, from your relatives, from your father’s house and go to the land that I will tell you.” And Abraham doesn’t say a word. The sacred text says that Abraham departed … exactly as Joseph does. He does not say a word and immediately follows what the light of the Lord has indicated. It is the same availability. The faith that God has found in Abraham and Joseph.

What family image have we made when listening to this text? I think we all loved the climate of perfect harmony that reigns between Mary and Joseph. They walk together, in total agreement about what they should do. We cannot imagine that some imprecation had escaped between them for the adverse destiny or against those responsible for their misadventures.

What is the secret of this serenity and of this family union that we all wish to reign in our families? The secret is that Joseph and Mary remain united and calm in the face of difficultiesbecause they have a reference point that is the same for both. Their options are the dream of God; that is what they want to understand and accomplish.

They listen at all times to the voice of the Lord. And they let themselves be guided by this voice. They had to face great adversities, that could have broken up the family, as happens so many times in our families when faced with difficult problems and sometimes they are problems that, instead of uniting the spouses, they separate the family. This does not happen with Mary and Joseph because adversities, after having discerned together according to the light of God, instead of separating them they came out with a greater and reinforced unity.

And here a message for all parents following the great figure of Joseph: In everything that the gospel tells of him, there is nothing he has done thinking of himself. All he is asked to do is always to favor others. Joseph moves, works, for good, for the salvation of others. He is a totally forgetful person of himself, of the search of his own interest. Always attentive to the needs of others. And he doesn’t say a word. He is always at the service of those who need his help, his presence.

We now come to the most important message, the reason why the evangelist has written this story. The two images of today’s Gospel text: the flight to Egypt and the return to the land of Israel, both conclude with a biblical quote. And the deeper meaning of the stories is explained in the fulfillment of these prophecies.

The first: “From Egypt I called my son.” This is a quote from the prophet Hosea. Towards the end of his book he introduces a very pleasant scene. It narrates God’s interest in his people and says that the Lord has been a father to Israel, He has filled it with tenderness and describes it: To Israel, his firstborn son, God taught him to walk, taking him by the hand with love, as a father does with his three-year-old son. That way God accompanied his people during their sometimes-convulsed history.

Then, God has taken this son to his cheek to stroke him with love; He has bowed to feed him; and when He saw him reduced to slavery, He made him flee from Egypt and led him to the land of freedom. So far the story of the prophet Hosea: “From Egypt I have called my son” to take him to the land of freedom. But in this promised land, was this firstborn son, Israel, truly free? In today’s Gospel text, Matthew says NO, that was not the land of freedom.And, in fact, the holy family is forced to flee. And this time they don’t run from Egypt but from Israel for there reigns Herod, a tyrant who is not very different from the pharaoh of Egypt who has enslaved the Israelites. Herod follows the same principles, cultivates the same ideals of greatness, of power like the pharaoh. He looks a lot like the pharaoh.

Therefore, the land of freedom is not a physical land, for the land of slavery was in Egypt and is in Israel. It can be anywhere in the world. Therefore, it is necessary for a new exodus from this land of slavery. The kingdoms of this world are all the same. When they are built based on the criteria of people’s justice, these kingdoms become oppressors and subject everything to the will and cravings of the tyrant of the day. This is why the evangelist remembers this prophecy and applies it to Jesus. He wants to make his readers understand, from the first pages of his book, that Jesus has come to guide humanity towards a new exodus, not from a material land, but from conditions of slavery, to really become free people.

‘Egypt’ is an image of the condition of humanity subordinate to the pharaohs, to the Herods who have no scruples until they kill to stay in power. If we look around our world, we will immediately realize the condition in which the poor, the weak live, helpless people, even children. What state are these fragile people in? The powers of this world are governed by the laws of finance, of the market, of the pressures of arms builders. And Matthew says that this child has come to change this unjust and cruel world.

The land of slavery is not only that of social, cultural, political and economic structures,but also, the land of our idols that enslave us. Those idols to which we consecrate the options of our life. We are slaves not only of structures, but slaves from within: slaves of our passions that lead us to idolize money, pleasure, success at any cost.

If our god is money, it is he who gives the orders of what we should do, It is he who will tell how to enjoy, even cheat and, if necessary, also resort to violence. Those who hear the advice of this idol will eventually find themselves in that kingdom of the pharaohs and of the Herods from whom it is necessary to escape to live as humans.

And if our idol is the professional career, then this idol gives us orders, even willing to make concessions with our conscience, to lie if necessary, to lean into hypocritical smoothiesand cheating.

Idols always lead us into the realm of slavery. Matthew tells us that it is in this Egypt where the Son of God has come, has entered, he has immersed himself in our condition of slavery, of all these slaves, to save us, to take us out, to really become free people.

It is clear that what Matthew tells is not a report of a physical, material journey, but, using biblical quotations, offers readers a first interpretive key to his gospel. He has presented Jesus like the new Moses who wants to take us to the true land of freedom, which is the kingdom of God. It is the people who accept and receive his beatitudes and with them build a new world, that is, finally, human. Let’s hear now how Matthew concludes the two comparisons he has composed: 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. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth,so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazorean.

The evangelist Matthew concludes his story by mentioning a second prophecy: “He will be called a Nazorean.” If we go through the entire Old Testament we will not find this prophecy. Therefore, unlike the previous one, it is not clear and has received many interpretations of what its meaning may be.

The name ‘Nazareth’ refers to the Hebrew term ‘netzer’ which means branch and also sprout. The one who visits Nazareth can contemplate from on high the mountains that surround the center, the hillock where the Basilica of the Annunciation stands today. And it gives the clear impression of being in front of a flowered flower. The mountains, as an amphitheater, look like petals and in the center the pistil, the population inhabited in the time of Jesus. And perhaps it is this conformation that has given the name of ‘Nazareth’ to that place: from ‘netzer’—flourished, flourished town. And when Jesus returns from Egypt —the evangelist Matthew tells—he arrives in Nazareth and has been called ‘Nazorean‘ (from netzer) – flourished and from here Matthew goes to the prophecy of Isaiah where it is said that from the almost dead trunk of the David dynasty “From the stump of Jesse a shoot will come forth; from his roots a branch will grow and bear fruit” (Is 11:1).

It is Matthew’s invitation, probably referring to this prophecy, to see this flower germinate which begins the true kingdom that will never end, that comes from the stump of David’s family.

I will end with one last reflection on Joseph. When referring to Joseph, I used the word ‘father.’ I don’t add ‘putative’. The true father of Jesus on this earth is Joseph because together with Mary it was he who led Jesus to become a man, they have made him grow by communicating the values that characterize the true person. Let’s not confuse paternity with transmission of biological life. The ‘father’ is the one who helps to make a child a person,although he has not given him biological life. He is the one who communicates the ‘human,’ the values ​​he has. When the son grows up with that humanity that he has communicated to him, then he is the true father. Therefore, it is Joseph who has instilled in Jesus those values ​​that characterize him: the ability to love, attention to others, forgetting oneself to help others, honesty, righteousness, the attention to the poor. This is what characterizes the authentic man.

We know that Jesus was allergic to any kind of hypocrisy. Where did Jesus get all these things? Who has made him assimilate these values ​​but his parents? Jesus grew up and was educated paying attention to the latter, to be friends with those who have been wrong in life, to love and esteem foreigners, Samaritans … Who has instilled these values? Joseph did not hear Jesus preach, but in Jesus’ words, in the message of love he has announced, we can read as in filigree, the values ​​that Jesus has learned by observing the life of his father and his mother, whom the Father in heaven put them by his side to grow with the values ​​that the face of the heavenly Father should reflect.

If the Father has wanted to show his own face in Jesus of Nazareth, he has arranged for these parents to be the ones to educate His Only Begotten so that he could fully resemble Him. Observing how this man Jesus of Nazareth has grown, we can conclude that the Father in heaven has chosen the right people.

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.