by Msgr. Joseph P. Calise
There is an interesting similarity in the opening chapters of the four Gospels; not in what they say but in what remains untold. John, unique in so many ways, presents his prologue (“In the beginning was the Word …”) and introduces Jesus immediately as the Word, the creative power of God, made flesh.
Luke, the only non-Jewish evangelist, presents the most elaborate and inclusive narration of the Nativity and is the only one who includes the finding in the Temple, the story of Mary and Joseph being unable to find Jesus in their caravan after a pilgrimage, and having to return to Jerusalem only to find him astounding the teachers in the Temple. Matthew, whose Gospel we have been hearing throughout Advent, tells the basic story of Bethlehem and the flight into and out of Egypt. St. Mark gets right to the point. His Gospel begins, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” and then immediately introduces the teaching of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. All of them leave a void between the birth and the ministry of Jesus.
The Gospel we hear today, the flight into Egypt and the return to Israel, ends the second chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel. Chapter 3 begins with Jesus approaching John for baptism.
This leaves almost 30 years of Jesus’ life unrecorded. In fact, the only account we have of Jesus’ life after his infancy and before John’s baptism is Luke’s account of the finding in the Temple. Those years in between can lead to some interesting speculation, but there is no scriptural support for anything except that Jesus grew up. As Luke writes, “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man” (Lk 2:52).
Today’s feast might not shed light on exactly what happened, but it certainly does give us the chance to reflect on how Jesus advanced in wisdom and age. His growing up took place within the context of the Holy Family. They set the atmosphere in which Jesus would discover his mission and develop the ability to bring it to completion.
At the head of the household is Joseph, a man willing to hear and obey the word of God. Last Sunday’s Gospel told us that the Lord spoke to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because the child in her womb was conceived of the Spirit. In today’s Gospel, that word comes through three more divine dream messages: to flee to Egypt, to return to Israel, and to go to Galilee rather than Judea.
With Joseph is Mary, whose simple prayer, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” is a powerful attestation of faith in action.
They lived in a time when those in power were not very willing to have their power questioned or challenged. Herod ordered the slaughter of the Innocents because he was afraid of the challenge which the birth of this Child, sought by the Magi, might present to him and his reign. Archelaus, his successor, was not going to be any more welcoming, so the Holy Family was again warned in a dream not to return to Galilee, but instead, Jesus would grow up in the town of Nazareth.
Nazareth was not a shanty town. From the hills, Jesus would be able to see the ships on the Mediterranean. He could see the road from Damascus to Egypt, the road on which his ancestor Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. This was the same road that would later be traveled by both Alexander the Great and Napoleon.
To the east, he would see the caravans of silk and spice traveling to the Roman Empire. Nazareth was a city that would expose Jesus to the vastness and wonders of the Father’s world.
So, in those almost 30 years about which we know very little, we do know that Jesus saw the greatness of God’s creation as he was being taught by example to hear and obey the Father’s will despite the opposition to it that would always exist. He was being prepared for the public ministry that would begin at his baptism and reach completion on the cross with the pronouncement, “It is finished.”
On this feast of the Holy Family, may we ask God’s blessing on our families, our parish family, our church family, and on the family of humanity.
By prayer and example, may we assist one another in our ministry as Christians and support one another in the desire to know God’s will for us and put it into action.
Msgr. Joseph P. Calise is the pastor of Transfiguration-St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Maspeth.