Keeping Jesus Alive Within Ourselves and in Others

Homily for Our Lady of the Flight into Egypt - 9 February 2025

Image via Wikipedia Commons: Flight to Egypt (1875) Bida, Alexandre, 1813-1895

Imagine the journey from Bethlehem to Egypt, through what is today called Gaza. Not only was it close to 700km, but Joseph and Mary also travelled by night, in fear, on foot, with a newborn baby. Perhaps there was a donkey to sometimes carry the young mother and her baby. And that was only the beginning of their ordeal. Our Gospel passage for Mass today gives us a very brief, sanitized account, but if a film were to be made or a novel were to be written about this journey, we would be sitting on the edge of our seats, filled with emotion, as we watched the film or read the book.

In Egypt itself, this young family had to keep moving to avoid the reach of King Herod’s spies, and also because they were frequently rejected by the locals. In total, there are 26 locations throughout Egypt where it is believed that the Holy Family passed through or sought refuge during their three-and-a-half years in exile. The places they stayed were later transformed into churches and monasteries. One legend relates how the Holy Family traveled to a town which later became the core of modern-day Cairo. After months on the run, Joseph sought refuge for Mary and Jesus in a cave. The cool space gave relief from the scorching sun and shelter from the blowing sand. According to tradition, the Holy Family lived in this cave for several months.

Over the centuries, several churches have been built over and around this cave, and a number of years ago I had the privilege of visiting this place. I remember being moved by the devotion of people coming into the church at all hours to light a candle, connecting in prayer with the Holy Family who had stayed in that place.

This celebration of our patronal feast gives us the opportunity to reflect on who we are as Church—how we fit in, and what we mean to each other and to God. The fundamental truth is that God wants us to be a community, a Church, a family—connected to each other and responsible for each other. We are of infinite value to God, and he wants us to recognize our worth. He also wants us to know the value of each of our brothers and sisters here.

What holds us together? What is the connection between us? Well, for starters, we all belong to the same God, who is Father of us all, and that makes us brothers and sisters in this great family which is the Church. Secondly, we hold Jesus Christ in common. Each of us is called to walk in friendship with Jesus. And if each of us has Jesus as a friend, then we already know the most profound thing about each other; we already have something—or rather, someone—in common.

Not only do we have Jesus in common, but you could also say we share the same purpose, the same mission. Each of us, individually and as a community, is engaged in the mission of the Church, which is to proclaim the Gospel to all peoples, in word and deed, in the different situations of our lives. For most of us, our immediate context is our mission field. And we remember that there are some people with whom we are in contact who only have us as missionaries. If we fail in our missionary work, then they will not hear and see the Gospel; it is on us.

How do we do this mission? How do we proclaim the good news of Jesus to others in our individual mission fields? Firstly, we remember the old saying that we cannot give to others what we haven’t got ourselves. If our missionary identity and work are weak, it is because we need re-evangelization ourselves. Each of us needs to continually engage with the person of Jesus, often starting over and over again, so that with an ever-deepening friendship with Jesus, we have something to give to others.

This local Church of Cape Town is under the patronage of Our Lady of the Flight into Egypt. Today we relive how Joseph had to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt to escape those who wanted to kill the child. So, today we remember that the Holy Family were refugees, asylum seekers, and that they came to Africa. That Our Lady the Refugee is our patron has got to say something about the kind of church and parish we are meant to be.

In the same way that Mary and Joseph literally were entrusted with keeping Jesus alive, we need to keep him alive within ourselves and in others. To keep Jesus alive in us means keeping in touch with him, nurturing our friendship with him. Any relationship or friendship requires that we spend time with the other, listening to them and talking to them. It is the same with Jesus and his Church. We need to be nourished and strengthened by prayer, by receiving the sacraments, and by listening to his Word.

So, as Christians, we are in relationship with Jesus and with those whom he loves. This double relationship—with Jesus and the people that belong to Jesus—is the essence of what it means to be Church. Remember, Jesus wants us to be a Church, a community, and we cannot be fully Christian apart from a real relationship with those whom God has given to us in our community.

The first reading shows us that God is a God of people. Over and over again, in the Old Testament, God is introduced as the God of your Fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In today’s reading, God introduces himself to Jacob as the God of your father, Isaac. So, God is the God of us as a people and as individuals too. We should be able to substitute our names for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As God once, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, created a people to be in relationship with him, he created us to be his sons and daughters.

In this same reading, we hear that God intervenes for the salvation of his people. He saves Jacob and his family in their time of trouble. Like the Holy Family, they too sought refuge in Egypt. We hear about this saving action of God again in the psalm. God saves his people from the troubles that beset them. All of us can identify with these troubled times in our lives when we call out for help. We hear that God intervenes in his people’s lives because he wants to be in a loving relationship with them.

Jesus’ intention is that we should be a community of believers united in mind and heart. His entire mission was to gather together a new people of God—and we are the product of that gathering 2,000 years later. We become Church through meeting together and sharing in the Eucharist, through our relationships with each other, and through our charity. God chooses to gift us as a community and through the community, not only as individuals. Each of us has a responsibility for the community and a responsibility to build up the community.

Today, we and our whole community want to have hearts that welcome Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We do this by keeping Jesus alive in us, by deepening our friendship with him, and by welcoming and giving refuge to those who also belong to him—the ones in difficulty, the lonely, the hungry, and the lost.

We give the Holy Family shelter by helping each other to find and experience God, to find a sense of family and friendship here. We keep Jesus alive by being a welcoming community, ready to embrace those who come here in the name of Christ and bearing his image.