The Second Sorrow: the Flight into Egypt

“Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Remain there until I tell you. Herod seeks the child to kill him.” (Matthew 2:13)

Meditation: Protection in Persecution

In the Second Sorrow of the Virgin, the faithful reflect on the episode when, to escape the cruelty of King Herod, Our Lady was forced to hurriedly escape into Egypt with St Joseph and the Christ Child.

Pope Francis explained: “This particular event in the life of Jesus, which also involves Joseph and Mary as protagonists, is traditionally known as “the flight into Egypt” (cf. Matthew 2:13-23). The family of Nazareth suffered such humiliation and experienced first-hand the precariousness, fear and pain of having to leave their homeland. Still today many of our brothers and sisters are forced to experience the same injustice and suffering. The cause is almost always the arrogance and violence of the powerful. This was also the case for Jesus.”

St Paul, a frequent traveller himself, spoke of “dangers in the desert”- including the risks of rivers and robbers (2 Corinthians 11:26). The Holy Family set off in the dead of night through tough terrain, probably taking the coast road to the River Nile. As we learn from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the risk of bandits on remote roads was real (Luke 10:30).

The journey from Bethlehem to the River Nile is at least 250 miles, or 400 kilometers. On foot this would have taken the fledgling family around 2-3 weeks. The Virgin would have been breastfeeding at the time, and still recovering from her pregnancy. As such, she must have found the escape tiring, taxing and tense.

On arriving in Egypt, they probably settled in one of the cities of the Nile Delta, where there were a number of Jewish communities (cf 2 Maccabees 1:1; Acts 2:5-10; 6:9; 18:24). In this new land, the Holy Family had to keep Jesus safe, find somewhere to live and work out a means to support themselves. The instability of this new life, the constant threat that they might be discovered and the uncertainty about how long they would have to stay in Egypt must have been extremely stressful.

In this stained glass scene from St Mary’s, Lanark, we see an angel protecting and guiding the family on this difficult journey. On their way from Egypt to the Holy Land during the Exodus, God had said to the Israelites: “Behold, I will send an angel before you to protect you on your way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.” (Exodus 23:20). Here we see the same in reverse.

Notice how the Virgin holds the Christ Child in a protective embrace, as St Joseph shoulders a small amount of their belongings in a bundle.

This window is found within St Mary’s, in Lanark. It dates to the 1850s, was produced by James Ballantine (1808-77), who was a leader in the production of Scottish stained glass and who had his own studio in Edinburgh.

Prayer:
O Sorrowful Mother, you fled Herod’s fierce anger and were exiled from your homeland. As you protected the Christ Child, shelter all those currently suffering persecution for the faith. Obtain also for me the grace of perseverance, and safely conduct me through the perils of this world. Amen.

Contemplate the full image below, or move to the Third Sorrow>