“The flight into Egypt recounted by the Evangelist Matthew has many spiritual meanings,” His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel stressed in his sermon at Cernica Monastery, where he attended the Divine Liturgy on December 26.

The first spiritual meaning is that “God takes care of every person, especially children who cannot defend or protect themselves.”

Patriarch Daniel enumerated several attributes associated with King Herod, a malevolent and questionable individual who managed to secure his dethronement by murdering his wife and three of his sons.

“The Holy Fathers interpreted the flight into Egypt as having many spiritual meanings. First, it meant sparing the life of Jesus,” highlighted the Romanian Patriarch.

The spiritual meanings were revealed gradually “because in God’s plan, Egypt, which was the place of idolatry and the place where the Jewish people were taken into captivity until their deliverance by Moses, was considered a heathen country. Surprisingly, the Infant Jesus is taken there to save His life. Thus, the word of the prophet who says: ‹ out of Egypt I called my son› (Hosea 11: 1) was fulfilled.”

On the return from Egypt, when Archelaus, also a cruel man, reigned in Judea, the Baby Jesus and His Mother were taken to Nazareth to fulfil the word of the prophet who says: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

“Beyond his cruelty, Herod is a plan of God that was predicted centuries before by the prophets of the Old Testament,” the Patriarch of Romania noted.

Explanations of the Holy Fathers

“Some Fathers who commented on this Gospel have said that Jesus was taken into Egypt for several reasons or motives.”

“Firstly, because in God’s plan, He was ready for sacrifice; therefore, later, He freely agreed to be crucified on the cross. If he had died at the age of a child, his will would not have been freely expressed because a child cannot express himself with a mature will like a man does at the age of 30.”

“Other Holy Fathers say that if Jesus had been killed by Herod the Idumaean with the children of Bethlehem and the surrounding area, the world would no longer have had the teachings of Jesus that He delivered to the world when He was a man, nor the miracles performed when He was mature,” Patriarch Daniel said.

“Through his flight into Egypt, the Saviour Jesus Christ shows us that when a person is persecuted, he must not remain defiant in front of the persecutor but must avoid confrontation with the one full of hatred.”

“Fleeing from persecution is a time gained for praying for the persecutor that God will change his bad thought into a good thought and at the same time that violence will not increase.”

The fact that the pagan Egyptians received the Baby Jesus was later seen through the Christianization of Egypt, where the first monasteries were established.

Synaxis of the Mother of God

The Synaxis of the Mother of God means honouring her and all those who gather in prayer to learn from her humility, obedience, and especially prayer.

“The Mother of God is a living icon of the Church in a state of prayer, that is why she was called ‹Orans › in the Latin language, meaning the praying one. The Mother of God is honoured after the Nativity because through the work of the Holy Spirit, the eternal Son was conceived in her as a man. Being born eternally from a Father without a mother, and on earth from a mother without a father, He was born with the action of the Holy Spirit on the human nature of the Virgin Mary,” Patriarch Daniel explained.

“The Mother of God is especially honoured on the second day of Christmas, being the icon of the living and praying Church and the one who gave birth as a man to Jesus, the world’s Saviour.”

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel concluded his sermon, pointing to aspects of the life of Saint Nicodemus of Tismana, a reorganizer of spiritual life in Wallachia.

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Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu

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