Abode in Egypt—Recall from Exile

Having shortly noticed the different places in Egypt which tradition alleges to have been sanctified by the, at least, temporary residence of the Holy Family, we will cast a glance at the manner of their life in the village near Heliopolis where they finally settled. It need scarcely be said that the life of Mary and Joseph was, as everywhere else, a combination of the active and the contemplative. Fervent and constant prayer, with profound meditation on the divine mysteries, was their daily bread. Nor had they to go far to find God, seeing that they had Him with them really present and manifested to them in the Divine Infant, for whoever saw Jesus saw the Father, as Christ Himself afterwards taught.¹ Yet, notwithstanding their continual conversation with God, Mary and Joseph had to suffer much in Egypt; but to suffer for and with Jesus is the portion and the delight of the saints. They suffered the privations and sadness of exile. Great, indeed, we know, is the desolation experienced by those who find themselves completely isolated in foreign lands, never hearing the accents of their own native tongue, severed from all the familiar associations which are bound up with the habits of their life, and separated from every friend and relative whom they love.

Moreover, in the case of the chosen people, who, when banished from Palestine, found themselves not only among foreigners and strangers, but among the idolatrous heathen, strangers not to themselves alone but to the God whom they adored, and deprived of all participation in those rites and sacrifices which were the acceptable worship offered to Him in Judea, this desolation became even tenfold greater. It was a well-known fact that the Jews reckoned banishment from their country to be as great an evil as death itself; so that the Roman historian, Tacitus, observes that if the Jews were compelled to leave their beloved land, they feared not so much to die as to live. The 136th Psalm well represents the sorrow of the Jews in exile. “Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Sion. . . . If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee, if I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.” What must have been the feelings of Mary and Joseph, those devout observers of all the precepts and ceremonial of the Law, when the great and holy seasons recurred at which crowds were flocking to Jerusalem to pay homage to the God of Israel in His Temple! Mary had been brought up in the precincts of the Lord’s House, and Joseph for years had exercised his trade in its immediate vicinity, and, although on their marriage they retired, by divine dispensation, to Nazareth, we know from their subsequent practice that the ninety miles which separated them from the Holy City would not have been allowed to hinder them from going up to keep the solemn feasts of the year.

To the sadness of this exile were added the straits of poverty, not such poverty or, rather, indigence as constrains its sufferers to go begging from door to door, but that simple and honorable poverty which renders daily labor needful for the earning of daily bread. Joseph resumed his carpenter’s tools, and by his skillful work, for which, we are told, he always asked a very moderate price, procured for his holy spouse and for himself what was needful for their support. An ancient tradition asserts that Joseph never ate his bread for nothing. The Blessed Virgin also diligently plied her needle and her distaff, and the result of their united labor was that something always remained wherewith to succor the poor and the afflicted.

Meanwhile, all their care was centered in Jesus. Jesus was their overflowing consolation in exile, their infinite treasure in poverty, their sweet repose in fatigue. Of abstinence, gentleness, and docile obedience the Divine Infant was a perfect model; and His love of poverty was early displayed; for when He was a year old, and Mary, thinking it time to release Him from His swaddling-bands, that He might have free use of His limbs, was, with Joseph’s acquiescence, about to prepare for Him a finely wrought vestment, He gave her interiorly to understand that He would wear nothing but a simple tunic of wool, woven entirely by her own hands; and this tunic was to last Him His whole life. The Virgin accordingly began to weave for Him that seamless garment which was to grow with His growth, and for which the soldiers were to cast lots on Calvary.²

It was a great joy to these holy spouses when they beheld Him begin to walk alone, and far greater still when, with His sweet infantine voice, He first called Mary by the tender name of mother and Joseph by the endearing name of father. Their hearts bounded with ineffable gladness at the sound, a gladness so great that, to temper its exuberance, it was needful for them to remember the prophecy of Simeon, and the persecution of Herod. Far removed as they were from the reach of the tyrant’s fury, it did not cease to be a subject of deepest pain to them. Even in those days when news traveled very slowly, and when the cruelty of rulers caused but slight surprise, a massacre so barbarous as that of the little children of Bethlehem must have excited a very general horror, and the report can scarcely have failed to reach Egypt. Be this as it may, the Mother of God, we may believe, was sure to be divinely apprised of what had happened, and to have shed, along with her holy spouse, many tears of compassion over these innocent victims. Not but they knew that theirs was a glory and a gain unspeakable, since for one brief moment of pain they were to enjoy an eternity of bliss; still, the human heart naturally melts with pity at such cruel deeds, and sanctity, so far from extinguishing natural compassion, intensifies it; and then the thought of the bereaved and distracted parents and, above all, of the unhappy mothers, sprinkled with the blood of their babes butchered in their very arms, must have filled the tender hearts of Mary and Joseph with indescribable sorrow.

It is believed that the holy old man, Simeon, and Anna the Prophetess died about this time, not so much borne down by the weight of years as overcome with grief and horror at Herod’s barbarities, and especially the slaughter of the babes of Bethlehem. Many saints have thought that Zachary was put to death by Herod because he had concealed his little son, the Baptist, concerning whose birth wonderful reports had been circulated in Jerusalem. St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Epiphanius, St. Hippolytus Martyr, and others, whose opinion Baronius follows in his Annals, believed that it was to him our Lord alluded when He spoke of the Zacharias who had been slain between the temple and the altar.³ Tertullian says that for a long time the stains of his blood were visible on the stone floor of the Temple.⁴ Elizabeth went and dwelt in the desert with her son John until her death, which, it is supposed, preceded the return from Egypt. How dear that sacerdotal family was to Mary and Joseph, bound as they were to it by the ties both of friendship and of consanguinity, we well know. Their angels did not, we may believe, leave them in ignorance of events so deeply interesting to their hearts. Another source of grief must have been the thought that, having been compelled to leave Bethlehem suddenly without communication with any of their friends and relatives, these must have suffered much anxiety on their account, fearing possibly that the Child Jesus might have been included in the slaughter of the Innocents.

But, with all these causes for sadness, Mary and Joseph, we may be assured, never uttered a lamentation, still less a murmur. Nor did they ever invoke the divine justice and vengeance on the author of all these woes. But divine justice and vengeance, none the less, overtook the ferocious tyrant, who persevered to the last in his sanguinary deeds, even putting his own son, Antipater, to death shortly before finishing his own wretched life, struck with a torturing disease which preyed upon and consumed his very vitals. If the news of his death reached the ears of Joseph, we might, judging humanly, have supposed that he would see therein the removal of the one obstacle which stood in the way of the safe return of the Divine Infant to Judea. But Joseph would not have reasoned thus, or, rather, he would not have reasoned at all, but have waited for orders from on high. The angel had not said, “Remain in Egypt until Herod is dead, and then return,” but, “Be thou there until I shall tell thee”.⁵ The question here suggests itself, how long did the Holy Family abide in Egypt? Scripture is silent, and doctors are not all agreed on the point. It would appear from history that Herod’s miserable death occurred about a year and a half after the massacre of the Innocents. Hence Epiphanius concludes that the Holy Family’s exile lasted two years. Nicephorus extends the term to three years. But it must be allowed that the general tradition of the Church—and such tradition is never to be lightly set aside even when probabilities seem to tell against it—allots seven years to their sojourn in Egypt. St. Francis de Sales, indeed, is of opinion that it was five, while Baronius even prolongs their absence to the ninth year. Adopting, then, the common tradition, we are naturally disposed to ask why the summons of the angel was so long delayed. Not that we can expect to obtain any precise reply, but some possible reasons to account for it may be suggested in the way of surmise. Herod had divided his kingdom amongst his three remaining sons into four parts, under the name of Tetrarchies, allotting two portions in Judea to Archelaus—forbidding him, however, to assume the title of king until authorized by Rome,—one to Herod Antipas in Galilee, and one in Iturea and Trachonitis to Philip. Now, Archelaus too closely resembled his father in pride and a capricious tyrannical temper to render the life of Jesus safe were He to return into Judea at once. The son of Herod must have been well acquainted with all that had so recently occurred, and, should it have reached his ears that the Child whom the Magi had adored as King of the Jews had escaped the slaughter of the babes in Bethlehem, he would have been seized with the same ferocious desire to destroy Him as had possessed his father. The angel’s mission may, therefore, have been delayed until matters of serious importance as regarded his position should have diverted the thoughts of Archelaus into other channels and absorbed his attention, as the dissatisfaction which he gave his Roman masters and the complaints raised against him by his subjects must surely have done.

Time also in the divine decrees may have been deemed necessary for completing the high mission of the Holy Family in Egypt. Jesus, taking refuge among the idolatrous Gentiles, began to shadow forth even then what was to be manifested hereafter. He began, with Mary and Joseph, to do what He was afterwards to commission His Apostles to do. He had come first to the Jews, but, as they would not receive Him and would have persecuted Him even to death, He had passed over to the Gentiles, and fixed His abode with them, preaching the doctrines of truth and opening to all the way of salvation. Jesus, therefore, did not leave Egypt until He had fulfilled His mission, that of commencing, even while yet a child, to illuminate these unhappy idolaters sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. He, the Sun of Justice, came to the so-called City of the Sun to give it the true light. Isaias, who had foretold the coming of Christ into Egypt, had also said that there should be “five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Chanaan, and swearing by the Lord of Hosts,” and that “one of them” should “be called the City of the Sun”.⁶ Without this preparation to accept the Gospel which the Holy Family was to effect, Egypt might not have been so docile as it was hereafter to the teaching of the Apostles. The blessing it had at that time received was to be fruitful of good and to people the immense solitudes along the Nile with holy anchorites and hermits, such as the Pauls, the Macariuses, the Anthonys, and countless others, so that St. Augustine was fain to declare that Egypt through them had become an image of Heaven, and the temple of the whole world. Then were the glorious promises of the prophet fulfilled: “In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument of the Lord at the borders thereof. It shall be for a sign and for a testimony to the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and He shall send them a Savior and a Defender to deliver them. And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall worship Him with sacrifices and offerings; and they shall make vows to the Lord, and perform them.”⁷ This prophecy of Isaias was, as we say, to receive a very remarkable, though a partial, fulfillment, in the evangelization of Egypt in the early centuries of the Church and its fruitfulness in saints, in followers after perfection, both men and women, and in courageous champions of the faith: we say a partial fulfillment, for, like many other similar predictions, it seems to have a wider scope, and to await a more complete accomplishment, a subject on which we need not here enter.

Jesus from His tenderest infancy displayed such divine beauty and grace in His countenance, in His every look, and in His whole behavior, that the mere sight of Him ravished all hearts. Meanwhile, His all-powerful prayer was ascending continually for them to the Eternal Father. He spoke but little, but those who heard His few simple words marveled, as men afterwards were to do at the words of grace which proceeded from His lips, and were drawn to practice His counsels and cast away the vices of heathendom. The children and the women of Matarieh were the first to know this wonderful and heavenly Child; the report spread, and then both men and women came to see Him, not only from the immediate neighborhood, but from other towns and villages. Jesus had two Apostles to aid Him in His mission, Mary and Joseph; and who can calculate the power and the grace that accompanied their words and their every act? Whoever, indeed, beheld the Divine Infant and then lifted up their eyes to look at Mary and Joseph, said in their hearts, “These are truly angels of Paradise”. Doctors have gathered from Oriental traditions that the Egyptian women, seeing Mary so beautiful, so gracious, so modest, and so discreet, conceived a great love for her, and numbers of them would come to visit her and bring her presents. They had such confidence in her, it is said, that in their bodily infirmities and other afflictions they had recourse to her assistance, and in their sorrows sought and found consolation from her lips. They would also bring their sick children to her, and she would gently lay her hand on their heads, or would place them near to her Divine Son, and they were healed. The Saracens, afterwards, were wont to say that no woman on whom Mary laid her hand ever died in childbirth.⁸

With respect to miracles ascribed by early tradition to Jesus during His infancy, some critics have urged in objection the assertion of St. John the Evangelist, that the miracle of changing the water into wine at Cana of Galilee was the first miracle which our Lord performed. But there seems no reason for thus rigidly interpreting this text, which, from its very wording, may more readily be taken to mean that this was the first public miracle which Jesus worked before His disciples to prove His divine mission and manifest His glory. Nothing, therefore, says Maldonatus, need hinder us from believing that Jesus had privately performed miracles previously.⁹

It may well be imagined that the Blessed Virgin took occasion of the resort to her of these simple heathen women to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God and in the practice of virtue, and bid them teach the same to their children; and that she would also tell them that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. As for her holy spouse, Joseph, the great St. Hilary holds him to be an Apostle, because he was commissioned to carry the Word of God to the Gentiles, but not only was he thus an Apostle in figure, but he himself (as already noticed) was to take his part in the work of evangelization; nay, the learned Cardinal of Cambrai has declared that he merited to be styled the first Evangelist, or preacher of the Gospel. “The angel,” he says, “evangelized the shepherds, holy Joseph publicly and solemnly evangelized all;”¹⁰ and, doubtless, he had many opportunities of gaining disciples to Jesus in the practice of his trade among the neighboring villages. In Heliopolis he would be well known, and probably the fame of his skill and his personal merit would cause him to be sent for even from Memphis and other places. Everywhere he would profit by the opportunity to speak of the goodness of God, of the blindness of those who adore idols, and to tell the Egyptians that soon a new light would appear to show the world its error; that they must therefore turn themselves to the true God, and observe His holy laws: these and similar things he would say to them, and thus prepare the way of the Lord in those regions, and sow the seed which was to bear fruit hereafter a hundredfold.

But now the time was come when the Holy Family was to be recalled from exile. One night, as Joseph was taking repose after his labors, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him once more, and bade him arise and take the Child and His Mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they were dead who had sought the Child’s life.¹¹ It will be observed that the angel does not say, “Herod is dead,” but, “they are dead who sought the life of the Child”; giving to understand that others besides the tyrant had been implicated in the design to destroy Jesus. St. Jerome is of opinion that Herod had adherents among the priests and scribes who combined with him in plotting against the new-born King. Nor does this seem incredible, since we read, in the Gospel of St. Mark,¹² that “the Pharisees going out immediately”—that is, after witnessing one of our Lord’s miracles—“made a consultation with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him,” one vile purpose thus uniting two most opposite sects. Herod, then, had his satellites, probably, even in the sanctuary, and, while they lived, the danger may still have been too great to allow of return. We have already alluded to other reasons which may have rendered delay desirable even after Herod’s death, which, if it be true that the Holy Family abode seven or even five years in Egypt, must have occurred some considerable time before the angel’s appearance to Joseph, and, in particular (as we have suggested), the sanguinary disposition of Archelaus, his successor.

This is the third time that we find an angel appearing to Joseph as the head of the Family to whose tutelage and direction the Mother of God and the Incarnate Word Himself were subjected. Jesus was now able to speak, and might have signified that the time was come for their return; for was He not God and the Lord of all? But no, He says not a word, and interferes no more than any ordinary child of His age would have done with the plans and movements of its parents. As this journey was not a flight, it was not needful that the Holy Family should depart before the dawn. The Gospel, as St. Jerome remarks, says nothing about night or darkness, and he sees in this return, begun in the full light of day, a type of what shall be at the end of this age, when the Jews shall be illuminated by faith and openly receive Christ the Lord. Joseph and Mary, always full of benign courtesy and gratitude, would not, we may be sure, set out without bidding adieu to their kind neighbors. Such is the opinion of Benedict XIII., and St. Bonaventura says that some Egyptian matrons, greatly attached to our Blessed Lady and her Divine Child, insisted on accompanying her a certain distance on the road. The Holy Family, probably, returned by the way that they had come, but Scripture is silent, and even tradition has less to say on this subject than it has regarding the flight. A pious belief, if no more, has, however, been entertained by not a few as to a meeting with John, the future Precursor, in the desert, where, as the Gospel tells us,¹³ he lived until the time of his manifestation to Israel. P. Domenico Cavalca gives it a record in his Life of St. John the Baptist, but what amount of tradition may exist in support of an incident on which the devout imagination loves to dwell we have not been able to ascertain.

It is evident that Joseph’s intention was to settle at Bethlehem, an intention which, as we have seen reason to believe, he had entertained previous to the exile into Egypt; but when he heard that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go thither. Hence we incidentally learn two things: first, how little information concerning public affairs had reached the Holy Family in their retirement; nor need this be any matter of astonishment to us when we reflect on the rareness of communication in those days, and on the widely different constitution of society, which caused its limitation in great measure to special classes. Joseph had heard nothing from the poor people with whom he conversed, and, we may rely upon it, he never made inquiries or went in search of news. His messengers were angels, not men; and he calmly awaited their orders and such information as it pleased God they should convey to him. In the second place, we learn that Joseph was aware of the character of Archelaus, and that he did not think that Jesus would be safe in his vicinity. Whether or not this would have been the case, it had been so ordained in the divine decrees that Jesus was not to be brought up at Bethlehem, but at Nazareth. While Joseph hesitated and, doubtless, prayed for guidance, the angel appeared to him for the fourth time to direct him how to act. “Being warned in sleep,” we are told,¹⁴ “he retired into the quarters of Galilee. And, coming, he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets, that He shall be called a Nazarite.”