THE FIRST MEDITATION On the Flight into Egypt
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint and Coppens, Charles
1st Prelude. Recall the facts, as narrated by St. Matthew ii, 13-19.
2nd Prelude. See St. Joseph quietly asleep in the night, and the Angel standing before him to deliver his message.
3rd Prelude. Ask the grace to understand the lessons taught in this mystery by Jesus, Mary and Joseph, so as to know your King more intimately, love Him more ardently and follow Him more faithfully.
Point I.Consider the message of the Angel, noticing particularly the persons, their words and their actions.
1. The persons. The Angel is a faithful messenger, a model of exactitude when a task is entrusted to us. He addresses Joseph because he is the head of the family. So God usually directs us through our superiors, even if these should be less able, even as Joseph was less gifted than the others. Jesus and Mary are not visited: “Take the child and his mother.”
2. Consider the words spoken: “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.” The action required implies many great difficulties; first a very long journey of hundreds of miles, and that through a wild country, where savage animals and robbers roamed. The parable of the Good Samaritan shows that robbers infested those regions, and the watch kept by the shepherds points to the presence of wolves, bears, etc. Then they are to leave at once, with no provisions for so long a journey: “Arise, and take, etc.” They are not even to say a kind farewell to the neighbors who had befriended them, but must leave in secret like criminals. And the motive assigned by the Angel is unsatisfactory to human reason: “Herod will seek the child to destroy him.” Were there not a thousand easier ways to prevent this? Was not God wise and powerful enough to save His Divine Son in Bethlehem? Or could they not have gone to Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, where young John the Baptist was living in security? Perhaps we might have been self-opiniated enough to find such objections; but Jesus, Mary and Joseph did not criticize.
3. The Actions of these exhibit a prompt, cheerful and perfect obedience. These are our models. Have we always acted thus? Is it our habit now to do so?
POINT II.Consider the exile itself. How the Holy Family was supported during the many weeks their travel must have lasted, we cannot imagine. They may have suffered many severe hardships; most probably they did, since Christ had come to give the example of patience under sufferings. But God’s Providence watched over every step of theirs, and supplied all their wants as far as was conformable to His designs.
He did not do so only on account of their privileged personalities, but He ever does the same for all who trust in Him. “I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on—for after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek you therefore first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (St. Matth. vi, 25-33).
We can especially trust in God’s assistance when we are obeying His commands, as was the Holy Family at that time. Therefore we should love to be directed by our superiors, who make known God’s will to us. And again, works done under obedience with a willing mind have a special blessing on them. “An obedient man shall speak of victory” (Prov. xxi, 28). The heroic virtues practised in later ages by the solitaries in those deserts may well have been the fruit of the obedience then practised by the Holy Family.
Their stay in Egypt for several years among strangers is best appreciated by those persons who have themselves experienced the bitterness of exile. Christ knew that many of His followers would endure those ills, and He wished to leave them a most consoling example.
POINT III. Consider the massacre of the Innocents. All its cruelty was meant for Christ, and cruel persecution has been continued against His followers throughout the ages, and is so to the present day. He had foretold it: “The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord. If they have called the good-man of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household” (St. Matth. x, 24-25). We must then be patient under any kind of molestation, though of course we may use all honest means to prevent it.
The persecution works the good of them who properly endure it. See this exemplified in the massacre of the innocents. It was very wickedly done, a cruel injustice and bitter suffering to the little ones, and a still more dreadful affliction to their mothers; but it resulted in eternal glory for the children. When a priest blesses an article of devotion, he makes a cross over it; so the Lord bestows His blessings with a cross. Every sorrow comes from the hand of our loving Lord, and is meant for the good of those who love Him: “To them that love God all things work together unto good” (Rom. viii, 28).
Colloquy. With Jesus and Mary, begging for constant fidelity in the imitation of my Divine Model amid all trials, with a firm confidence in His loving providence: “Know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord and hath been confounded” (Ecclus. ii, 11).