God as Protector and Guide of our Families

In today's  Gospel, Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23, we are told that the magi completed their visit to Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus.  The holy family was, at that point, in danger, as Herod was seeking a way to kill Jesus. Why? Because he perceived Jesus, the Messiah King and Savior of the world, as a threat to his power and kingship. Watching over the holy family,  God sends an angel to direct Joseph: "'Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you'....Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed for Egypt....When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord [again] appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.'"

Just as God protected the holy family, so, too, does God protect our families!  God is as solicitous for us made holy by Jesus' death and resurrection as He was for the biological holy family of Jesus, Mary, His mother, and Joseph, his foster father! God elicits the help of each parent, grandparent, and other relatives to secure the protection of His children. How sad when we let Him down. God, I believe, weeps when we abandon our responsibility to secure the well-being  of a child, including a child in its mother's womb.  God, I believe, weeps over immigrant children in cages, separated from their parents or when families are turned away from countries in which they are seeking asylum so as to raise their children in  in what they believed would be safe places. He weeps over children who are trafficked and/or sold to slave labor camps and abused in so many other ways. 

God, help us, as you helped Mary and Joseph protect Jesus. May we, like Joseph, be listening to Your instructions. May we let You be our Guide and Protector and use us as your reliable and responsible partners. I ask this in Jesus' name.

What St. Joseph Teaches Us!

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Gospel of today, Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23 gives the account of how God directed the Holy Family, counseling them in ways that kept them safe and in ways in which their needs as a family were met.  Shortly after Jesus’ birth and after the Magi left to return to their perspective countries, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him to make an immediate departure in the middle of the night for the land of Egypt. Herod would be searching for the child Jesus to kill him.  When in Egypt and those who wanted to kill Him had in fact themselves died, an angel again appeared to Joseph instructing him to return to Nazareth.  A third time, again in a dream, Joseph is counseled concerning the  place in Judea  to settle that would be best for the Holy Family.

Joseph is alert to heavenly messages. He listens to the good spirits guiding him as foster father of Jesus.  All along, Joseph is fulfilling the prophesies concerning Jesus. As with the Holy Family, God has a plan for our lives as well. If we follow the promptings of “the angels,” the messengers of the Lord speaking to us, guiding us, protecting us, we, too, will experience God’s overwhelming love and intimacy in our lives, day in and day out.  As with Joseph, so, too, with us: we are guided day and night. Warnings are given to us and  God’s instructions are shared with those who have developed ears to hear.   Do we heed God’s guiding  voice? Do we see God’s guiding hand? Do we trust “our dreams”? Joseph did!  We can, too!

Lord, may each of us develop the kind of intimacy with you that Joseph had developed  and that enabled him to hear your voice, trust the messengers You sent to him and the dreams given for his benefit and those  for whom he was to provide sustenance and protection from  the evil of his day.