God has a loving plan for us – Matt 2:13-15

Continuing the Old College Holy Hour series on Our Lady of Sorrows.

When the Magi had left, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying:

“Arise and take the child and his mother

and flee to Egypt and stay there until I tell you,

for Herod is about to seek the child out in order to kill him.”

When he had arisen, he took the child and his mother by night

and they went away into Egypt and were there until the death of Herod,

in order that what the Lord said through the prophet might be fulfilled:

“Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

~~

God calls Joseph to become a refugee, to undertake a perilous journey to a strange land and experience the alienation and marginalization of life on the edge of society in Egypt.  God calls him to rise from death to life, but not to an easy life, and He doesn’t give him an easy road to tread to get there.  God doesn’t promise us an easy life either; He promises eternal life.

Moreau wrote of the great reluctance and fear he felt in becoming superior of the Brothers of St. Joseph, but he tells us that eventually he “felt in duty bound to bow before the clearly manifested plan of Divine Providence.”  We only bow before what we love. We can only love God because God first loved us.

“I fell in love with Israel when he was still a child; and out of Eygpt I called my son.”  That’s the full verse from Hosea that Matthew quotes part of in this reading, and the whole thing is important, is vital, because if our understanding of call and mission aren’t grounded in God’s love, discipleship seems harsh and restrictive, instead of lovingly self-giving.

God has a plan for each of us, a loving plan. God has a dream for each of us.  To dream together is for lovers.