Rise, take the child and his mother

29 DECEMBER (Mt 2,13-15.19-23)

The heavenly Father watches, does not sleep, pays great attention to preserve and save the physical life of his Only Son. Joseph sleeps. God does not sleep and does not fall asleep. He does not get to sleep. His only Incarnate Son is in danger. It is necessary to intervene. He needs to set him to safety. He must be freed from the hands of Herod.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. The LORD will [a]protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will [b]guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever (Psalm 121 (120), 1-8).

When a person is needed to God to accomplish the work of salvation, he always sends his angel from heaven for his release. God intervenes also with Peter.

About that time King Herod laid hands upon some members of the church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword, and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (It was (the) feast of Unleavened Bread.) He had him taken into custody and put in prison under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. He intended to bring him before the people after Passover. Peter thus was being kept in prison, but prayer by the church was fervently being made to God on his behalf. On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter, secured by double chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while outside the door guards kept watch on the prison. Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, “Get up quickly.” The chains fell from his wrists. The angel said to him, “Put on your belt and your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” So he followed him out, not realizing that what was happening through the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first guard, then the second, and came to the iron gate leading out to the city, which opened for them by itself. They emerged and made their way down an alley, and suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter recovered his senses and said, “Now I know for certain that (the) Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting” (At 12,1-11).

Jesus is still in arms. He cannot save himself, alone. He needs Joseph to save him. The Angel of the Lord awakens Joseph and orders him what to do instantly, quickly for the salvation of Jesus and his Mother. Salvation in this case passes through a man’s obedience to the voice of his God and Lord, that always is made manifest and revealed to him.

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazorean.”

Today, Jesus Christ must be saved from the ruthless and cruel hand of idolatry that is killing his body. It is destroying almost all the children of the Church. Without children, the Church is without future. She lives in spiritual famine all of her present. The salvation of the children of the Church, of the body of the Church, comes from obedience to other children of the same Church. It comes from obedience to the Gospel of all those who still claim to believe and make the profession of an evangelizing mission. If those who say they believe are not rooted in a strong obedience to the Gospel, their work is in vain . Without faith in the Gospel one is an idolater, and idolatry kills the body of the Church and does not vivify it.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us of true obedience.