This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. The Gospel reading is from Matthew 2:13-23, which describes the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt to escape King Herod the Great’s proclamation that all male children under the age of two be killed. This was foretold by the Pharoah’s proclamation in the Book of Exodus that all male Jewish children be killed. At that time, only Moses was saved by the princess who rescued him from the water; now, only Jesus was saved by Joseph who brought Him into Egypt. Moses and Jesus both played the role of saviour: Moses saved his people from slavery, while Jesus saved both His people and the entire world from slavery to sin. When Herod died, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to return to the Holy Land. In fact, the Joseph of the New Testament shares many similarities with the Joseph of the Old Testament: both were dreamers, both had fathers named Jacob, and both were persecuted by a king and his brothers respectively. The Holy Family later moved to Nazareth, a small town whose population numbered no more than 480 people at the time. Joseph led a humble life there as a carpenter, teaching us the road to sanctity: to perform well our duty to pray and work in front of the Child Jesus, and in doing so grow with Him.
【Spiritual Talk】- The Feast of the Holy Family
