Unlike the first angelic dream bearing good news, Joseph’s second dream was dire. “Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. Like refugees right up to the present, a young family flees violence in hopes of a better life. We can only that Joseph and Mary weren’t separated at the border from their child — a cruel and unnecessary practice. And we can hope that there were people along the way who offered a helping hand this immigrant family. When Jesus said, “Whatsoever you do for the least, you do unto me” he meant situations exactly like that of the Holy Family seeking asylum in Egypt.
