2019 Feast of Holy Family

As we have heard in today’s gospel, after the end of the Magi story St. Joseph reappears as the principal actor on the stage.  But he is not acting on his own initiative. Rather he is acting in accordance with instructions that he receives, once more from the angel of God in a dream. He is asked to rise in haste, take the child and his mother, to flee to Egypt, and to remain there pending further instructions, for, as he is told, “Herod is going to search for the child, to destroy him”.
 
During Advent this year our community heard a series of talks by Dom Cuthbert Elliot, OSB of St. Louis Abbey in Missouri. One of his highly original talks dealt with the role of fear in the sequence of events surrounding the birth of Jesus. My homily today includes ideas that have come to me in response to his thought-provoking presentation.
 
During the 80’s and 90’s I was a member of a lay group associated with a Catholic consulting agency.
 
Many of the agency’s patrons were people who were confronted with crossroads in their lives. They were seeking assistance with finding ways to deal creatively with new situations. Each had their own very different story. But what all had in common was some experience of fear, and issues were resolved beginning with this.
 
In the Bible we often hear the phrase “Be not afraid”.  Why not, we ask. Is fear bad?  Is it something to be ashamed of ? …A sign of weakness to be hidden from others?  
 
Of course not.  
 
Consider that the Holy Family fleeing a murder attempt, endured exile into Egypt, years of insecurity, and the probable misunderstanding of their own kin and fellow villagers upon their return to Israel.  Like us, fear would have been an expected part of their experience.
 
In fact “Be not afraid” is an inaccurate translation of the Greek original which really means “Don’t make yourself fearful” or “Don’t terrify yourself”.
 
Normal fear and making oneself fearful are two very different things. They are epitomized clearly in the actions of St. Joseph in the case of the former and King Herod in the case of the latter.
 
Fear itself is a healthy response to any unexpected situation. It is a vital source of energy and it is beneficial in that it provokes creative thought and impels action.
 
But making oneself afraid is self-indulgence and is destructive.
 
Let’s draw this out a bit: When we leave our fears unaddressed – when we refuse to deal with them or deny their existence - the danger is that anxiety sets in. We become aware that we are no longer in control. Naturally we are overcome with dread. This is when fear becomes self-induced terror. It is here that we can easily become wide open to the entrance of Satan’s influence. Hatred transmutes terror into rage. Rage drives us to destroy what we fear, just as did Herod.
 
The illusion is that we have removed the cause of our fear. Of course we haven’t and the evil we perpetrate spreads like a stain. Sin is a hard taskmaster. Once sold over to it we are helpless to break the chain. One evil concession always requires another. We kill what we fear. The tragedy of three thousand abortions per day in America gives ample witness to this.
 
By the time we meet Herod in today’s gospel he has already held himself trapped in exactly this monstrous pattern for years.
 
In 7 B.C. He had two of his sons Alexander and Aristobulus executed because he considered them a threat to his power. In 4 B.C. he killed his son Antipater for the same reason. The news from the Magi of a new king of Israel launched him once again on his murderous path. It was clear from his character that he would stop at nothing.  He had every male child two years old or younger, in the region of Bethlehem, killed. But the infant Jesus escaped and remained safe.
 
He escaped because his foster father St. Joseph, placed himself, as head of his family, in God’s hands, and remained in control of both himself and the situation. Warned by the angel, he somehow (we don’t know the details) got his family clear of Bethlehem in time.
 
Later in Egypt St. Joseph again received instructions in a dream and we see him very clearly as the listening and humble one, the courageous and obedient one who is also decisive and acts wisely.
 
He is told that Herod has died and that the time has come for him to return home with his family.  Immediately he is caught up in the tragic situation that afflicted Israel at this stage in its history. He learns that Archelaus, the most brutal of Herod’s sons, is ruling Judea. Afraid to re-approach Bethlehem, St. Joseph is now instructed, again in a dream, to go to Galilee. Again he finds a way to accomplish this.
 
The patrons of the consulting agency I spoke of earlier were people just like you and me. In each case something new and unexpected had entered into their lives; perhaps a change in employment, or the call to assist a family member in a pinch, or even the unexpected arrival of a large inheritance. In each case the new situation will have raised legitimate fears, as it must have repeatedly for Mary and Joseph during their sojourn. Altered circumstances always require caution, imagination and courage.
 
For each of us, too, something new and unexpected has entered into our lives. It is a divine Person: Jesus Christ, God-made-Man, always new and beyond our greatest expectations.
 
Advent was our preparation for him, Christmas our joyful celebration of his arrival and these weeks of the Christmas season are an invitation. They are our opportunity to imitate St. Joseph, not Herod, as we respond to the unexpected, perhaps surprising and sometimes fearful demands of his infinite Love.
 
As followers of the newborn Christ, let us always be humble, but never timid.