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Gospel: Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23
When the magi 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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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We all know the difference between a dream and a nightmare. Dreams are like a burst of consolation. We fall asleep and we’re swept away into an idyllic land, or we’re king of the castle, or perhaps someone we love visits us from heaven.
Suddenly, you wake up and it’s over. We try going back to sleep, squinting our eyes and counting sheep, hoping the dream returns. But it never does. Chasing a dream is like a child chasing a butterfly. You’ll never catch it.
Nightmares are different.
Imagine you’re running along a beach. The sand is sinking, the water is lapping at your feet, and you’re running out of breath as a gigantic crab tries pinching you with its claws. Suddenly, you wake up in a panic.
Thankfully, it wasn’t real.
But, for some odd reason, we can fall back asleep and find that same villainous creature waiting for us!
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In today’s Gospel, Saint Joseph has three different dreams. At least two of them are nightmares. All of them come after the initial dream he had before Christmas, when an angel appeared to him, saying, “Do not be afraid to take Mary into your home.”
That dream forever changed his life.
So will the next three we hear about today.
First, an angel appears to Joseph, telling him to immediately take Mary and the Christ-child down to Egypt because King Herod wants to kill this baby.
I’d imagine Joseph awakened the same way we would from dreaming about that crab – in a cold sweat, scared, clammy, short of breath, his heart racing rapidly with adrenaline flowing through his veins.
Whereas we might roll over and try to go back to sleep relieved that it wasn’t real, Joseph must get up and go.
Now.
This is literally a matter of life or death.
Amazingly, just two verses prior to Joseph having this dream, Jesus was welcomed into the world surrounded by the love of his parents and the adoration of the magi, who miraculously arrived from the east, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
But with a turn of phrase, everything changes. “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise.’”
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I’d imagine Joseph got up, quickly stuffed the magi’s gifts into a sack, perhaps with a few loaves of bread and a jug of water. After throwing their few belongings over their donkey’s saddle, he awakens Mary while holding Jesus, motioning, “It’s time to go.”
As they journeyed through the city at night on the road heading into Egypt, into the unknown, Joseph’s heart must’ve sank into his stomach every time he and Mary passed by a Roman soldier. Had Herod issued his death decree yet? Were the soldiers aware?
We know shortly after their escape, every male under the age of two was murdered. The attempt to kill Christ was foiled… for now.
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Joseph’s next dream comes while he, Mary, and the child Jesus are in Egypt. The good news is that the monstrous tyrant, Herod, is dead. After braving a new land, adjusting to a new culture, language, and history, the Holy Family could head home.
Or, so it seemed.
But no sooner than stepping foot on their native soil, Joseph has another dream. Archelaus, Herod’s son, was ruling over Judea, making it unsafe for them to return. So, they wait for further instructions.
In a fourth and final dream, Joseph is directed to head north to Galilee.
What a harrowing story. It seems like every time Joseph closed his eyes, he could awaken to a new reality. If I were him, I might’ve developed insomnia, or a fear sleeping!
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How might we illustrate the drama of the Holy Family’s journey today?
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Traditionally, in the days after Christmas, most families and churches begin taking down their Nativity scenes, each piece wedged back into a Styrofoam mold, then tucked inside a cardboard box until next year.
But Matthew’s account of that first Christmas suggests we could do something different. Yes, we can take away the magi, the ox, the donkey, the angel, or whatever other characters we may have added.
What we could keep is the Holy Family huddled together in some form of temporary shelter, out in the elements, vulnerable to the darkness and the “Herods” of this world.
Perhaps we could move the figurines every so often to another part of the church, reminding us of their journey from Bethlehem to Egypt, to the borders of Judea, to Nazareth in Galilee. They, like so many in our world, searching desperately for safe haven.
A simple place, even a foreign place, to call home.
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Like Saint Joseph, every person – and every family – lives with dreams and nightmares. We all dream of peace, we all dread loss, and fear the unknown.
Perhaps this Christmas season, we can dream Joseph’s dream – a world, or even a small slice of it – where the poor are welcomed, the hungry are fed, and Christ is acknowledged in all of our neighbors.
As we often sing, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
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Image credits: (1) Missionaries of the Holy Family (2) The Dream of Saint Joseph, Philippe de Champaigne (3) Building on the Word