Minimum Protection, Maximum Support
Scripture lessons: Hebrews 2:10-18 and Matthew 2:13-23
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night and went to Egypt.
(Matthew 2:14, New Revised Standard Version)
Several years ago a woodcut appeared in the Christmas issue of The Catholic Worker magazine that showed a smiling infant Jesus tucked cozily into the hay of a manger. But along the horizon, behind this comforting scene, the artist had shown the unmistakable signs of a raging fire: a powerful image of King Herod’s desire to destroy the Prince of Peace.
The story of the Holy Family’s flight from Herod’s jealousy is high drama: there are voices in dreams, close calls and night journeys. Then the family settles at last in Nazareth, glad no doubt to be living in relative obscurity. The whole saga of this pilgrimage seems to bear out the truth of a comment once made by the writer, William Sloane Coffin: “God offers minimum protection but maximum support”!
The Letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus “became like his brothers and sisters in every respect” (Hebrews 2:17). This means that for all his wisdom and energy, Jesus was no less fragile than we are. Yet in his vulnerability there was an astounding strength of will, a vision of love for all people and especially the disenfranchised, and the keen attentiveness of a poet. Through his humanity flowed the life of God and the gifts of the Spirit: peace, wisdom and compassion. As a new year unfolds, may that same divine will flow freely through our vulnerable lives for the greater health of the world.
Prayer: O God of new beginnings, make us flexible and resilient instruments of your peace so that in every season of our lives we may serve as ambassadors of your compassion; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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