Flee to Egypt: Sir 3, Col 3, and the Holy Family’s Flight with Mt 2.

# The Feast of the Holy Family

## Sunday of the Octave of Christmas, Year A

The feast of the Holy Family on the Sunday after Christmas, Year A, weaves together three texts focusing on the family as a school of virtue and a place of obedience to God. Sir 3:2-6.12-14 proclaims the obligation to honor father and mother and the benefits that flow from it: atonement for sins, spiritual wealth, long life. Col 3:12-21 urges believers to clothe themselves with mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, with charity as the bond of perfection, applying these virtues to family relationships: wives, husbands, children, parents. Mt 2:13-15.19-23 narrates the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt and return to Nazareth after Herod’s death. The three texts depict the family as a place of obedience, shared virtue, and faithfulness to God even in times of danger and exile.

## I. The First Reading: Sir 3:2-6.12-14

The Wisdom of Sirach (Eclesiástico) provides theological underpinning for the fourth commandment: “The Lord honored the father with regard to his children, and strengthened the right of the mother over her children” (Sir 3:2). Honoring one’s father atones for sins (v.3), while honoring one’s mother accumulates spiritual wealth (v.4). Respecting one’s father brings joy in offspring and prayerful hearing (v.5), and living a long life (v.6). The application to old age: do not forsake your father in his old age, do not grieve him in his life (v.12). Mercy shown to one’s father will not be forgotten, especially in difficult times, it will serve as atonement for sins (v.14). Sirach does not idealize family life; he recognizes that parents grow old, lose lucidity, and become a burden. Precisely at this moment, the commandment is most demanding and most rewarding. The Holy Family of Nazareth embodied this spirit: Mary honored God as Father, Jesus honored Mary and Joseph, and obedience within the family was the context in which the Son of God grew in wisdom, stature, and grace (Lk 2:52).

## II. The Second Reading: Col 3:12-21

Paul urges the Colossians, “chosen by God, holy and beloved,” to clothe themselves with mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (Col 3:12). Bear with one another and forgive each other as in Christ forgave you (v.13). And above all these things, love, which is the bond of perfection (v.14). Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts (v.15). And let the words of Christ dwell in you abundantly (v.16). Then, specific family roles: wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord (v.18). Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them (v.19). Children, obey your parents in all things (v.20). Parents, do not exasperate your children so they do not become discouraged (v.21). The Christian family is described not as a hierarchy of power but as a shared virtue space where each relationship has a specific quality demanded: love, obedience, patience, non-irritation. The implicit model is the Holy Family of Nazareth.

After the visit of the Magi, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream: «Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is seeking to kill the child» (Mt 2:13). Joseph got up at night, took the child and his mother, and fled to Egypt (v.14). Joseph’s obedience is immediate and complete. Matthew sees the fulfillment of a prophecy: «I called my son out of Egypt» (v.15, citing Hos 11:1). The Holy Family retraces the path of Israel: the people who left Egypt in the Exodus are prefigured by the family returning to Egypt after Herod’s death. The angel appears to Joseph again in a dream (v.19) and tells him he can return, for those who sought the child’s life are dead (v.20). Joseph takes the child and his mother and goes to the land of Israel (v.21). But fearing Archelaus, he goes to Galilee and settles in Nazareth (vv.22-23). The life of the Holy Family is shaped by obedience: Joseph obeys the dreams, which are the voice of God. Exile is not a failure of God’s plan; it is part of it.

IV. Mary and the family of flight

Mary is the central figure of the Holy Family not because she commands or decides, but because she carries. In the flight to Egypt, she takes the Son who is the Son of God and flees at night to a foreign country. The experience is that of all refugees: urgency, danger, helplessness, uncertainty about the future. Mary, who sang the Magnificat at the Visitation, also knows the silence of exile. Colossians 3 asks believers to put on mercy, kindness, humility, and patience: Mary is the perfect model of these virtues in family life. She does not appear in the Gospels arguing with Joseph, questioning his decisions, or imposing her perspective. Instead, she welcomes, guards, and meditates. «Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart» (Lk 2:19): her family virtue is contemplative recogni-tion that allows her to listen to what God asks. Sirach 3 speaks of honoring parents in old age and weakness: Mary lived the opposite; she was cared for by the Son, who became her support during her widowhood and who, before dying, entrusted her to the beloved disciple. The Holy Family of Nazareth is the first Church: three people united by charity as described in Colossians 3, a model for every Christian family.