FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY A

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The Coptic Christians of Egypt are especially proud that as a people they offered hospitality to the Holy Family at a time of need.  

Now after the Magi had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 

 This story of the Flight into Egypt, as particular as it is to the Holy Family, is as ancient a story as humanity itself. It is a story that plays itself out year after year, even to our own day. It is a story of fear and oppression, of vulnerability and the abuse of power.  For the Copts, and the Christian communities in the Middle East, their story and the story of God overlap in this story and they see themselves not only as those who provided God with the security of a refuge, but as a people now in search of refuge and security themselves.

Today the United Nations estimates that there are over 68.5 million refugees and displace persons live in the world. Many of those refugees or internally displaced persons are Christians fleeing for their safety, as once did Mary and Joseph, and their infant son.
 
We know that Matthew in his Gospel portrayed Jesus as the new Moses: the one who, like the first Moses, would lead his people from the slavery of sin into freedom in the Promised Land. Matthew was trying to make a theological point about who Jesus was and is. As a way to do that, Matthew placed Jesus, like Moses, in Egypt, and he did that in a very real, very human way: by making Jesus a refugee. Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” 

By making Jesus a refugee in Egypt, Matthew makes Jesus not only the new Moses, but he gives him an all too modern face: one we see in refugee camps in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and hundreds of other places dotted around the globe.

It’s easy for us to turn today’s Gospel into a cute story. But the crisis which propelled and expelled Mary and Joseph from their own country, is a crisis faced by many today. Even at this moment somewhere in the world, hundreds if not thousands of women, children and men are being driven from their homes in search of safety, shelter and a future. It is this, that Herod hoped to deprive Jesus of. Yet by finding refugee in Egypt, Matthew gives Jesus the safety of shelter, and thereby gives us all a future.

So while this story is happening somewhere else today, it is also our story as the People of God: Jesus is given shelter, and we are given a future. 
It is this sense of a future, God’s future that keeps alive the hope of refugees around the world, we cannot allow refugees to lose their future.  
For many of the ancient Christian communities in Iraq and Syria and even the West Bank, the hope of a future is quickly fading 

So what are we to do? What can we do? What is our responsibility?

As always, our first job is to pray. As Christians it is our joy and privilege to pray for one another. It is our joy and job to pray for one another, including the ancient churches of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Egypt. These lands are the cradle of our faith and as they opened their hearts to God in Christ nearly 2000 years ago, it is now our responsibility to open our hearts to them. In opening our hearts to them, we need to learn something about them and come to know them as sisters and brothers and fellow workers in Christ. By praying for them we come to know and understand them as the chosen of God who are holy and blameless before him in love. 

For 2000 years the Copts have been immensely proud of their role in giving refuge to the One who came to them seeking safety, security and a future. Now perhaps it is our responsibility to do the same and see in the refugee, from wherever they have come, the face of the Holy Family.