13. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him.
14. When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt
15. And was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my Son.
RABANUS. Here Matthew omits the clay of purification when the first-born must be presented in the Temple with a lamb or a pair of turtle doves or pigeons. Their fear of Herod did not make them bold to transgress the Law, that they should not present the Child in the temple. As soon then as the rumor concerning the Child begins to be spread abroad, the Angel is sent to bid Joseph carry Him into Egypt.
REMIG. By this that the Angel appears always to Joseph in sleep, is mystically signified that they who rest from mundane cares and secular pursuits, deserve angelic visitations.
HILARY; The first time when he would teach Joseph that she was lawfully espoused, the Angel called the Virgin his espoused
wife; but after the birth she is only spoken of as the Mother of Jesus. As wedlock was rightfully imputed to her in her virginity, so virginity is esteemed venerable in her as the mother of Jesus.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. He says not, 'the Mother and her young Child'; but, the young Child and His mother; for the Child was not born for the mother, but the mother prepared for the Child. How is this that the Son of God flies from the face of man? or who shall deliver from the enemy's hand, if He Himself fears His enemies? First, He ought to observe, even in this, the law of that human nature which He took on Him; and human nature and infancy must flee before threatening power. Next, that Christians when persecution makes it necessary should not be ashamed to fly. But why into Egypt? The Lord, who keeps not His anger forever, remembered time woes He had brought upon Egypt, and therefore sent His Son there, and gives it this sign of great reconciliation, that with this one remedy He might heal the ten plagues of Egypt, and the nation that had been the persecutor of this first-born people, might be the guardian of His first-born Son. As formerly they had cruelly tyrannized, now they might devoutly serve; nor go to the Red Sea to be drowned, but be called to the waters of baptism to receive life.
AUG. Hear the sacrament of a great mystery. Moses before had shut up the light of day from the traitors the Egyptians; Christ by going down thither brought back light to them that sat in darkness. He fled that He might enlighten them, not that he might escape his foes.
ID. The miserable tyrant supposed that by the Savior's coming he should be thrust from his royal throne. But it was not so; Christ came not to hurt others dignity, but to bestow His own on others.
HILARY; Egypt full of idols; for after this inquiry for Him among the Jews, Christ leaving Judea goes to be cherished among nations given to the vainest superstitions.
JEROME; When he takes the Child and His mother to go into Egypt, it is in the night and darkness, when to return into Judea, the Gospel speaks of no light, no darkness.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. The straightness of every persecution may be called night - relief from it in like manner, day.
RABANUS; For when the true light withdraws, they who hate the light are in darkness; when it returns they are again enlightened.
CHRYS. See how immediately on His birth the tyrant is furious against Him, and the mother with her Child is driven into foreign lands. So should you in the beginning of your spiritual career seem to have tribulation, you need not to be discouraged, but bear all things manfully, having this example.
BEDE. The flight into Egypt signifies that the elect are often by the wickedness of the bad driven from their homes, or sentenced to banishment. Thus He, who, we shall see below, gave the command to His own, When they shall persecute you in one city, flee to another, first practiced what He enjoined, as a man flying before the face of man on earth. He whom but a little before a star had proclaimed to the Magi to be worshipped as from heaven.
REMIG. Isaiah had foretold this flight into Egypt Lo! the Lord shall ascend on a light cloud, and shall come into Egypt, and shall scatter the idols of Egypt (Is 19:1). It is the practice of this Evangelist to confirm all he says; and that because he is writing to the Jews, therefore he adds, that it might be fulfilled, &c.
JEROME. This is not in the LXX, but in Osee according to the genuine Hebrew text we read: Israel is my child, and I have loved him, and from Egypt have I called my Son; where the LXX render, Israel is my child, and I have loved him and called my sons out of Egypt. ID. The Evangelist cites this text, because it refers to Christ typically. For it is to be observed that in this Prophet and in others, the coming of Christ and the call of the Gentiles are foreshown in such a manner, that the thread of history is never broken.
CHRYS. It is a law of prophecy, that in a thousand places many things are said of some and fulfilled of others. As it is said of Simeon and Levi, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Gen 49:7); which was fulfilled not in themselves, but in their descendants. So here Christ is by nature the Son of God, and so the prophecy is fulfilled in Him.
JEROME; Let those who deny the authenticity of the Hebrew copies, show us this passage in the LXX, and when they have failed to find it, we will show it them in the Hebrew. We may also explain it in another way, by considering it as quoted from Numbers, God brought him out of Egypt; his glory is as it were that of a unicorn (Num 23:22).
REMIG. In Joseph is figured the order of preachers, in Mary Holy Scripture; by the Child the knowledge of the Savior; by the cruelty of Herod the persecution which the Church suffered in Jerusalem; by Joseph's flight into Egypt the passing of the preachers to the unbelieving Gentiles (for Egypt signifies darkness); by the time that he abode in Egypt the space of time between the ascension of the Lord and the coming of Anti-Christ; by Herod's death the extinction of jealousy in the hearts of the Jews.
16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. When the infant Jesus had subdued the Magi, not by the might of His flesh, but the grace of His Spirit, Herod was exceeding wroth, that they whom he, sitting on his throne, had no power to move, were obedient to an Infant lying in a manger. Then by their contempt of him the Magi gave further cause of wrath. For when kings' wrath is stirred by fear for their crowns, it is a great and inextinguishable wrath. But what did he do? He sent and slew all the children. As a wounded beast rends whatever meets it as if the cause of its smart, so he mocked by the Magi spent his fury on children. He said to himself in his fury, 'Surely the Magi have found the child whom they said should be King'; for a king in fear for his crown fears all things, suspects all. Then he sent and slew all those infants, that he might secure one among so many.
AUG. And while he thus persecutes Christ, he furnished an army (of martyrs) clothed in white robes of the same age as the Lord.
ID. Behold how this unrighteous enemy never could have so much profited these infants by his love as he did by his hate; for as much as iniquity abounded against them, so much did the grace of blessing abound on them.
ID. O blessed infants! He only will doubt of your crown in this your passion for Christ, who doubts that the baptism of Christ has a benefit for infants. He who at His birth had Angels to proclaim Him, the heavens to testify, and Magi to worship Him, could surely have prevented that these should not have died for Him, had He not known that they died not in that death, but rather lived in higher bliss. Far be the thought that Christ who came to set men free did nothing to reward those who died in His behalf, when hanging on the cross He prayed for those who put Him to death.
RABANUS. He is not satisfied with the massacre at Bethlehem, but extends it to the adjacent villages, sparing no age from the child of one night old to that of two years.
AUG. The Magi had seen this unknown star in the heavens, not a few days, but two years before, as they had informed Herod when he enquired. This caused him to fix two years old and under, as it follows, according to the time he had inquired of the Magi.
ID. Or because he feared that the Child to whom even stars ministered, might transform His appearance to greater or under that of His own age, or might conceal all those of that age; hence it seems to be that he slew all from one day to two years old.
AUG. Or, disturbed by pressure of still more imminent dangers, Herod's thoughts are drawn to other thoughts than the slaughter of children, he might suppose that the Magi, unable to find Him whom they had supposed born, were ashamed to return to him. So the days of purification being accomplished, they might go up in safety to Jerusalem. And who does not see that that one day they may have escaped the attention of a King occupied with so many cares, and that afterwards when the things done in time Temple came to be spread abroad, then Herod discovered that he had been deceived by the Magi, and then sent and slew the children.
BEDE.In this death of the children the precious death of all Christ's martyrs is figured; that they were infants signifies that by the merit of humility alone can we come to the glory of martyrdom; that they were slain in Bethlehem and the coasts thereof, that the persecution shall be both in Jerusalem whence the Church originated, and throughout the world; in those of two years old are figured the perfect in doctrine and works, those under that age the neophytes; that they were slain while Christ escaped, signifies that the bodies of the martyrs may be destroyed by the wicked, but that Christ cannot be taken from them.
17. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
18. In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
CHRYS. The Evangelist by this history of so bloody a massacre, having filled the reader with horror, now again soothes his feelings, showing that these things were not done because God could not hinder, or knew not of them; but as the Prophet had foretold.
JEROME; This passage of Jeremiah has been quoted by Matthew neither according to the Hebrew nor the LXX version. This shows that the Evangelists and Apostles did not follow anyone's translation, but according to the Hebrew manner expressed in their own words what they had read in Hebrew.
ID. By Ramah we need not suppose that the town of that name near Gibeah is meant; but take it as signifying 'high.' A voice was heard 'aloft,' that is, spread far and wide.'
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Or, it was heard on high, because uttered for the death of the innocent, according to that, The voice of the poor enters into the heavens (Sirach 35:21). The 'weeping' means the cries of the children; 'lamentation,' refers to the mothers. In the infants themselves, their death ends their cries, in the mothers it is continually renewed by the remembrance of their loss.
JEROME; Rachel's son was Benjamin, in which tribe Bethlehem is not situated. How then does Rachel weep for the children of Judah as if they were her own? We answer briefly. She was buried near Bethlehem in Ephrata, and was regarded as the mother, because her body was there entertained. Or, as the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were contiguous, and Herod's command extended to the coasts of Bethlehem as well as to the town itself; we may suppose that many were slain in Benjamin.
PSEUDO-AUG. Or, the sons of Benjamin, who were akin to Rachel, were formerly cut off by the other tribes, and so extinct both then and ever after. Then therefore Rachel began to mourn her sons, when she saw those of her sister cut off in such a cause, that they should be heirs of eternal life; for he who has experienced any misfortune, is made more sensible of his losses by the good fortune of a neighbor.
REMIG. The sacred Evangelist adds, to show the greatness of the mourning, that even the dead Rachel was roused to mourn her sons, and would not be comforted because they were not.
JEROME; This may be understood in two ways; either she thought them dead for all eternity, so that no consolation could comfort her; or, she desired not to receive any comfort for those who she knew had gone into life eternal.
HILARY; It could not be that they were not who seemed now dead, but by glorious martyrdom they were advanced to eternal life; and consolation is for those who have suffered loss, not for those who have reaped again. Rachel affords a type of the Church long barren now at length fruitful. She is heard weeping for her children, not because she mourned them dead, but because they were slaughtered by those whom she would have retained as her first-born sons.
RABANUS; Or, the Church weeps the removal of the saints from this earth, but wishes not to be comforted as though they should return again to the struggles of life, for they are not to be recalled into life.
GLOSS. She will not be comforted in this present life, for that they are not, but transfers all her hope and comfort to the life to come.
RABANUS; Rachel is well set for a type of the Church, as the word signifies 'a sheep' or 'seeing,' her whole thought being to fix her eye in contemplation of God; and she is the hundredth sheep that the shepherd lays on his shoulder.
Catena Aurea Matthew 2
Image: The Massacre of the Innocents | Angelo Visconti
