Flight into Egypt—Massacre of the Innocents

All things, it has been shown, combine to render it most probable that Joseph, after the Purification, returned to Bethlehem, and with the purpose of settling there, believing that all the signs which had accompanied the Nativity of the Divine Infant marked it as the place befitting Him and agreeable to the will of God signified thereby. If Mary had any inward illumination on the subject she would be silent. Joseph was the head of the Holy Family and its appointed ruler, guide, and provider. They probably left Jerusalem immediately; and, if not on that very night, probably on the next, Joseph was again visited in sleep by the Archangel Gabriel. St. Matthew says, “And after they,” that is, the Magi, “were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying, Arise and take the Child and His mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the Child to destroy Him.”¹

It is evident that God, having an infinity of means in His power by which He might easily have placed His Son in safety, and shielded Him from Herod’s fury, was pleased to choose that which was the greatest abasement to the Savior, flight, but at the same time the greatest honor to Joseph: an angel was sent by the Eternal Father to convey the commission to him to carry His Son into Egypt. To our short-sighted views it might have appeared more convenient that the Divine Infant should have been borne gently and swiftly through the air by this exalted spirit than that He should have to journey slowly and wearily along the earth in the arms of a man. Nevertheless, God did not confer this office on any of those blessed spirits whom He beheld kneeling in thousands and tens of thousands before His throne, and burning to execute His will and to render some act of homage and service to the Incarnate Word. To Joseph alone was to belong the glory of preserving a life whose every instant was of incomparably more value than the united lives of all created beings. All men contributed to the death of the Savior, one alone saved Him from death in His infancy; so that, as to one alone among women, Mary, was He indebted for His life as man, so to one alone among men did He owe its preservation. Thus St. Joseph has been called the savior of the Savior, seeing that he saved Him from death by murder and by starvation.

Oh, what a glory was it to this virgin father to clasp in his embrace the Son of God and bear Him away in safety from His persecutor! Truly might we reply with Origen² to any one who should ask why Joseph is called the father of the Savior, that it is because he gave Him protection against all the dangers of the journey into Egypt. He preserved His life, and thus earned a fresh title to be called His father, inasmuch as the preservation of anything ought to be as highly esteemed as its original production. God commissioned angels to convey prophets and preachers of the Gospel from one place to another, but to Joseph alone did He entrust His Son and the charge of conducting Him to a place of safety. Joseph did not make his journey from Bethlehem to Egypt as rapidly or as easily as did the angel who bore Habacuc from Judea to Babylon, or as St. Philip the Deacon, taken away by the Spirit of the Lord, was transported from the desert road of Gaza to Azotus,³ but this only enhances his glory; because the journey cost him so dear, being full of labors, fatigue, suffering, and peril to his own liberty and even life, undergone to save that of Jesus. More glory had he in carrying the Son of God into Egypt than had the great legislator, Moses, in delivering the people of God from that house of bondage, or than all the angels who contributed to that deliverance, nay, than any of those blessed spirits who announced the Birth of the Incarnate Word, who ministered to Him, and spread a table for Him in the Desert, who comforted Him in His agony, or who watched at His sepulcher to proclaim the glad tidings of His Resurrection.

Out of regard to the higher dignity of Mary we might have thought that the angel would have been sent to her; nevertheless, it was not to her, but to Joseph, that he was bidden to go, that it might be known that he was the recognized head, tutor, guide, governor, and guardian of both Jesus and Mary, and that he it was who was responsible for their safety. The angel, moreover, does not say, Tell Mary to take her Son, but bids him take the Child, signifying that to him is committed the charge of conveying Him into Egypt; and, not the Child only, but the Mother. What an unspeakable honor did God thus confer on Joseph, in that He confided to him entirely the safety of His most beloved and precious treasures, Jesus and Mary! The angel adds, “Fly into Egypt”; he does not say, “Fly with them,” for Joseph is the head and representative of the Holy Family. He is, as it were, one with Jesus and Mary, he is inseparable from them. Where Joseph is, there also are Jesus and Mary. Joseph, belonging to the order of the Hypostatic Union, forms, in fact, with Jesus and Mary that glorious Triad on earth which represents the Most August Trinity in Heaven.

Many reasons may be given why it was decreed that the Son of God should seek refuge in Egypt. St. Matthew mentions only one, after his custom of showing how all prophecy was accomplished in Jesus: “that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called My Son”.⁴ Isaias and Ezechiel had also predicted that the Savior should enter into Egypt, and that the idols should fall down at His presence.⁵ We may discern other reasons in the abode which the patriarchs, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, made in that land. The destinies of the chosen people had, indeed, been intimately bound up with Egypt for centuries; and we may well believe that God had a purpose of mercy towards that country in decreeing that the Holy Family should seek refuge there, thus illuminating and sanctifying those regions, which were afterwards to give so many martyrs to the faith, and to be peopled with so many holy anchorites, of whom St. Chrysostom says that there were not in Heaven so many constellations as Egypt contained habitations of hermits and holy virgins.

The angel bade Joseph remain there until he should bring him word again. This uncertainty must have been, naturally, very painful to our saint, but, perfect model as he was of obedience, he asked not a single question. How many difficulties and objections the great lawgiver, Moses, made before he would consent to undertake the work of bringing back the people of Israel from that same land, although the Lord promised to be with him and do signs and wonders! Joseph is bid to fly, no help is promised to him, no directions are given to him, and he says not a word upon receiving this unexpected commission. St. Francis de Sales observes⁶ that herein the angel treats Joseph as a perfect religious; he simply says: Take the Child and His Mother, and fly into Egypt. How many questions might he not have asked! It was then dark night; was he to wait till day should dawn? To what part of Egypt was he to go? Was he to bear the Infant in his arms during the whole journey, or permit Mary to share that charge with him? Alone, ignorant of the way; exposed to danger from wild beasts and robbers; in the winter season; unprovided with means; to have to pass into foreign lands, not knowing what reception they would meet with;—all this might have prompted much anxious inquiry. But Joseph was silent. He had heard, and that sufficed. So he arose, and did as the angel had bidden him: he took the Child and His Mother by night, and fled into Egypt. St. Peter Chrysologus says that this journey was so arduous that the very angels were struck with wonder when they beheld the Savior required to make it.⁷ To face all these evils St. Joseph at once generously devoted himself, setting out at the very moment he received the command, although, as Cardinal Cajetan observes, the angel did not precisely bid him fly during the night. Even this one circumstance of his life must show how singular and perfect was the obedience of Joseph. Albert the Great believes that it would be impossible for any one to exhibit more readiness of body and spirit than did our saint, not tarrying to make provision or inquiry, nor even questioning the angel as to the road he was to take. So perfect was his docility to the divine command that a doctor of modern times pronounces it to be an especial work of the Spirit of God.⁸ There is something very significant in the brief and, as we might call them, decisive words in which the Evangelists always state the obedience of Joseph. No careful reader of the Gospels can fail to notice this. What they leave unsaid strikes us as much as what they say. There are volumes for meditation and instruction in those short passages, and they seem to make us understand our saint better than the most detailed description would have done.

Joseph hastened to apprise Mary. Perhaps she already knew all by interior revelation; but, whether or no, Mary’s heart was always prepared for suffering, and her will to conform itself to the expressed will of God; she never complained, she never uttered a lamentation. She had soon collected the few things they would carry with them. Joseph laid them on the meek ass, their constant companion and assistant, and, as we may believe, added some of the necessary implements of his trade. Then he besought Mary to place the Divine Infant in his arms, and pressing Him to his bosom, and folding his mantle over Him to shield and conceal Him and at the same time to protect Him from the inclement blast, he went forth, with his august spouse, in the darkness and silence of the night. But which way were they to turn? To ask their road would be a peril. He who sent a star to direct the steps of the Magi, and who led Israel in the desert by a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night, would be sure not to leave the Holy Family to make this long and dangerous journey alone and deprived of guidance. We may, then, readily believe—it would be difficult not to believe—that Mary’s guard of honor, the angels appointed to be her attendants, were again visible, if not always, yet in the hour of need and doubt, to throw light upon their path.

It is supposed that they took the direction of Gaza; and, if so, they passed near Hebron. Mary must have longed to communicate with her cousin Elizabeth, that she might set her on her guard against any risk for the safety of her son John, but their journey allowed of no delay, however short. “Take the Child and His mother, and fly into Egypt:” such was the command addressed to Joseph, and it would admit of no reserve. But Mary may have commissioned one of her guardian angels to bear a warning message to the house of Zachary.

That vale of Hebron was rich in fruits, in figs, vines, olives, and pomegranates, as it was also in pious memories. It was there that the explorers of the land sent by Moses gathered rich figs and that marvelous bunch of grapes which required two men to bear it, as a sample of the produce of the land.⁹ It was also on the hills of Hebron that, according to Hebrew tradition, Noe planted his first vine.¹⁰ Now He was passing who was to be trodden in the winepress of God’s anger against sin, and to pour forth all His precious blood as the wine of our salvation. Not venturing to enter the city, the Holy Family stopped to rest in a country-shed on the summit of a hill about a mile to the north of it. The spot has preserved to this day the memory of the Mother of God by bearing her name, which the Arabs still give it. It has also been a place of pious pilgrimage to Catholics.¹¹ If Elizabeth and Zachary were able to see their holy relatives as they passed, it must have been here. We love to dwell on the possibility, and on the joy which it must have caused to the infant Baptist to behold again, and adore, and interiorly converse with Jesus, the God-Man, of whom he was the chosen Precursor and whom he was to be the first to proclaim as the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. The meeting, if it took place, must have been very brief, for the fugitives would pause for repose no longer than necessity imperatively demanded, until they had passed the frontiers of Herod’s dominions and set foot in the land of the Philistines.

Scarcely had the Holy Family left the confines of Bethlehem when cries and shrieks began to rend the air. Herod, furious at seeing himself deceived by the Magi, had sent forth his cruel order, which his satellites hastened to fulfill to the utmost, and even beyond the limits of his orders. Troops of soldiers had entered Bethlehem, and, with drawn swords in their hands, had burst into every house and butchered all the male infants, tearing them from their cradles, and from the arms of their distracted mothers, whose screams filled the city and every household with consternation. Whoever attempted resistance was slain. Concealment was the only resource for the unhappy women; but where and how conceal their babes, whose innocent wailings betrayed their hiding-place? “They knew not how to be silent,” says St. Augustine, “because as yet they knew not how to fear.”¹² From Bethlehem the carnage spread to the surrounding villages. The ground reeked with blood, and was strewn with the mangled corpses of these innocents, and the whole country was filled with desolation and mourning. “Then,” says St. Matthew, “was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”¹³ Rama was a city of the tribe of Benjamin, on the borders of Bethlehem, and the prophet represents Rachel as weeping for her children, not because all these slaughtered infants were actually her descendants, but because, being buried close to Bethlehem, she had acquired, so to say, the rights and the name of mother of these babes.¹⁴

Herod’s cruel order was limited to children who were not above two years old; but how many may have perished who had passed that age! The male children alone were to be the victims of his fury; but how many female infants may have been also recklessly slaughtered! How many mothers were slain by the same sword that pierced their babes lying on their bosoms! How many fathers and brothers, casting themselves between the children and the armed soldiers to protect them, mingled their blood with that of these martyred innocents! The executioners swept through all the neighboring villages, and, tradition tells us, reached even Hebron, the infant Baptist being saved by his mother, who, as soon as she caught a sight of Herod’s soldiers, ran with him to the top of the mount still called “St. John on the mountain,” where a rock is shown which miraculously opened to conceal the mother and her son from their murderous pursuers.¹⁵ Macrobius says that in this manner even a son of Herod perished who had been put out to nurse at Bethlehem. Other accounts state three; which made Cæsar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, exclaim, when he heard of this brutal act, that it would be better to be a pig than Herod’s son, since in the capacity of a Jewish proselyte he would spare swine, while he put his sons to death. Happy sons, if so indeed it was, to be numbered among the Holy Innocents, instead of growing up to tread, perhaps, in the steps of their father! What was the number of these slaughtered babes we know not. Some of the ancient doctors extend it to an amount which would seem incredible, after making every allowance for the larger population of Bethlehem and its adjacent territory than at the present time. The Greeks and Abyssinians in their liturgy have retained the number of fourteen thousand, but the Holy Roman Church, in the absence of any precise statement in Scripture or tradition, simply says that Herod, enraged, slew many children.¹⁶

That they were true martyrs of the New Law there was never any question; because they died for Jesus, and martyrdom consists, not in the pain of death, but in its cause. The Church, indeed, addresses them as the flowers of the martyrs, because, in the opening of life, the fierce persecutor of Christ cut them off as the blast cuts off the budding roses.¹⁷ They were also the first who shed their blood for Christ, and the saying this offers no contradiction to the assertion that St. Stephen was the Protomartyr of the New Law, since he was the first of the holy martyrs who, after the Passion of our Lord, confessed the faith both by word and deed; but the Holy Innocents confessed the faith, not with their tongues, but by their death, which was to them a baptism of blood. Hence the Church, in her prayer for their feast, says of them, “Non loquendo, sed moriendo, confessi sunt—they confessed, not by speaking, but by dying”.¹⁸ When the Empress St. Helen built the Church of the Nativity over the grotto of Bethlehem, many of the little bodies and relics of the Holy Innocents were collected by her and placed in that church, where subsequently a subterranean chapel was constructed and consecrated to them. Besides the ancient accounts, we may refer to the pages of a modern traveler, who thus describes what he saw: “From the chapel of St. Joseph you pass, descending five steps, to that of the Holy Innocents, whose precious memory has been exalted to high honor by the Infant God for whom they died. A pillar supports the subterranean vault of the little sanctuary, and there is a small cave under the altar, in which repose some relics of their tender bodies, innocent victims of the dark and ferocious jealousy of Herod, who from the loving embrace of their mothers were carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.”¹⁹ Of them the Church sings: “Vos prima Christi victima, Grex immolatorum tener, Aram sub ipsam simplices Palma et coronis luditis—You, the first victims of Jesus, tender flock of the slain, simple little ones, play under the altar with your palms and crowns”. A worthy resting-place it was for these martyred babes, the spot where He was born who is the God of the innocent and of the persecuted.