07 Rosary Rant – “Infancy”[!] – “5″ – The Exile of the Holy Family

[[The donkey (my all time favorite beast) and the entire Holy Family look as if they are suffering from exhaustion. Well presented!]]

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Some readers might be surprised at seeing “The Exile of the Holy Family” as a mystery of the rosary, and doubly surprised to see it categorized under the mysteries of the Infancy of Jesus. O.K. An explanation is in order!

First of all, this is not an “official mystery” — that’s true, I admit that, accept that — but I thought I would include it in this series for pedagogical reasons. That’s all. Have patience with this hermit!

Secondly, we have to know that there have been other non-universally accepted mysteries of the rosary prayed since time immemorial. For instance, there are some orders of religious and umpteen zillion individuals who pray a “sixth decade” after the official mysteries (and followed, always, by the Litany of Loretto, always). Their rosaries sometimes reflect this, with not five, but six decades of beads. That mystery is “the Immaculate Conception of the ever Virgin Mother of God.” I love that. It’s not bad, not evil, not an attempt to scandalize, not an attack on devotion, piety, Tradition or even the tradition of the Church, nor is it an attempt to confuse the faithful and have them throw up their hands in frustration that the whole Church is sliding down into the place of wailing and grinding of teeth! Really! I emphasize this since some get nervous about anything and everything. But we just need to see that prayer, even if not absolutely “official”, is not evil. Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross would be the first to teach this, and in fact, did. God leads souls on many and diverse ways, as many as there are souls.

The “Infancy mysteries” were not promulgated in any official manner, as were the mysteries of light (which are quite specifically mysteries of the rosary designed for priests, but we’ll get to that later in the series). It was, however, again, Blessed John Paul II who ”used” these mysteries on various occasions, using the first three joyful mysteries, followed by 4. The Martyrdom of the Holy Innocents and 5. The Exile of the Holy Family into Egypt. I did not know this. It was a close friend in Rome, a Cardinal of Holy Mother Church, who explained all this to me years ago.

These two mysteries are not exactly joyful, but point to the permissive will of God. Our heavenly Father can and does draw great good out of real evil. He’s God. He knows how to do these things!

Think about it, are not these two mysteries, or, as a group, the Infancy mysteries, appropriate today, when there is such an attack on life, on the most helpless among us, by the most ferocious cowards, cowards like Herod and Archilaus? I think so. But I’m not making a bid of any kind. Just pointing out some things in the life of a newly beatified Roman Pontiff.

And… and… and… it’s not as if these mysteries did not take place in the life of our dear Lord! And… and… and… these are recounted by the Holy Spirit in the Sacred Scriptures, which He inspired. It is most appropriate, for instance, during prayer before the Most Blessed Sacrament, to humbly thank our Lord for the what He and His Holy Family suffered on our behalf during His younger years. If one were to recite, say, oh, ten Hail Marys during this reflection, I don’t think our Lord would be displeased! I write all this with a smile on my face and joy in my heart. Our Lord is so very good and so very kind. Of course He is most pleased with such humble thanksgiving.

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Remember that the easiest way to pray the rosary is to recognize that Jesus and Mary and Joseph are with you right here, right now, as they are in heaven, not as they were a couple thousand years ago. Sure, take a look at what they did for you and all back in the day, but, in our Lord’s grace, with a spirit of humble thanksgiving for them, right here, right now.

Remember, it’s not about your imagination that you are in their presence – which Pelagian effort of imagination is a lot of hooey – rather, your act of the will, in our Lord’s grace, to humbly thank Him and our Blessed Mother is what the prayer of the rosary is all about.

Clever meditations, whether in “rant” style or, later, please God, in a style presented in a more genteel manner (when I get all the Scripture tomes out of the boxes and on some now non-existent shelves), don’t get anyone anywhere. The only way what is presented on this blog is going to help anyone is if that someone, by the grace of our Lord, uses these words as an occasion to humbly thank the Holy Family right now for what went on back in the day.

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For this preliminary “rant meditation” on the fifth joyful mystery of the most holy rosary, let’s take Matthew 2,13-15 and 2,19-23, for which a summary interlinear comment will be provided, based on my own in-your-face translation from the Greek, with an eye to the Vulgate. I’m not into the esoteric practice of translating one word for one word, as if, magically, all languages had absolutely perfect one word for one word equivalents. Such pretension cannot ever provide a great translation, unless you’re in a position to create the language, as was the case with the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which made up a goodly number of words, but paraphrased the rest. Instead, trying to avoid coining any words, I’ll provide a translation with more in-your-face accuracy than any one word for one word translation could ever present. The perfect verbs in Greek, with all of their perfectly continuing perfection, are not easy to translate!

Matthew 2,13 But they having departed the country — Behold! An angel of the Lord appeared through a dream to Joseph, saying, “Having arisen, take along the Child and His mother and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is about to seek the Child to murder Him. 14 And Joseph, having arisen, took along the Child and His mother by night and departed that country into Egypt. 15 And he was there until the end of Herod, in order that it might be fulfilled that which was being spoken by the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I have called my Son.” /// 19 But with Herod having died – Behold! – an angel of the Lord appeared through a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 saying, “Having arisen, take along the Child and His mother and go into the land of Israel, for those seeking the life of the Child are perfectly continuing to be perfectly dead! 21 And having been raised up, he took along the Child and His mother and entered into the land of Israel. 22 But having heard that Archelaus reigns over Judea in place of his father, Herod, he became frightened to be traveling through there, but having been instructed through a dream, he went away from that country into the districts of Galilee. 23 And having gone, he settled in a city having the name Nazareth in order that that which was being spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that He will be called a Nazarean.

O.K. So, let’s try some interlinear commentary:

Matthew 2,13 But they having departed the country — Behold! An angel of the Lord appeared through a dream to Joseph, saying, “Having arisen, take along the Child and His mother and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is about to seek the Child to murder Him. [Scared of a little baby. Just like so many of today's politicians...] 14 And Joseph, having arisen, took along the Child and His mother by night and departed that country into Egypt. [Just so you know, this is one of the most horrific expanses of desert in the world...]15 And he was there until the end of Herod [What a way to talk about his death!], in order that it might be fulfilled that which was being spoken by the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I have called my Son.” /// 19 But with Herod having died – Behold! – an angel of the Lord appeared through a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 saying, “Having arisen, take along the Child and His mother and go into the land of Israel, for those seeking the life of the Child are perfectly continuing to be perfectly dead! [I wouldn't want to be that dead when I die!] 21 And having been raised up, he took along the Child and His mother and entered into the land of Israel. [Another Exodus... This time, no 40 years in the desert. Perhaps 40 days...] 22 But having heard that Archelaus reigns over Judea in place of his father, Herod, he became frightened to be traveling through there, but having been instructed through a dream, he went away from that country into the districts of Galilee. [Look up Archelaus in the Jewish Encyclopedia. What a fright! Yikes!] 23 And having gone, he settled in a city having the name Nazareth in order that that which was being spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that He will be called a Nazarean.

Just a quick word for those who know what it is like to go into exile.

UNHCR guesstimates that there are about 40 million at any given time. One might argue that this number also includes displaced people, but if you’ve ever been in a natural disaster, you know how ugly things can get. Bad enough for many, if they can, go as far away as possible from people trouble, whatever about the original disaster.

As with others who suffer in this way or that, there can be a temptation for some to ask, in anguish edging on a bitterness which makes one frightened: “Where is God? Does God know what it means to be in exile? Does God know what it means to suffer? Does God know about us?

Yes, to all those questions. These things must happen in this world because of original sin. There wouldn’t be any political exile if we worked together in goodness and kindness. There wouldn’t be any natural disaster that would catch us off guard if we worked together in goodness and kindness.

But we don’t. God knows that we’ve sinned. He sees the effects of the sin. In justice, we have to go through these things, the consequences of the sin freely chosen by Adam so long ago. However, God also knows that He can come into the world and take on all the hell we have to come up with so that He has the right in all justice to have mercy on us. And He did come. He immediately was off into exile, murderous threats all around. And He did know the cruelest death ever invented… again, because, in remaining innocent, and in taking on what we deserve for sin, He has the right to say, “Father, forgiven them.” And He does say that from the Cross. And the Father does forgive us. Heaven will be so very different. We will then see Goodness and Kindness Incarnate, gloriously reigning, and, hopefully, we with Him.