When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
~ Leviticus 19:33-34
The Holy Family in Exile
Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt…
~ Matthew 2:13-14
Fleeing oppression and likely death, the holy family crossed international boarders without papers. They took whatever they could carry, what little resources they had, and fled.
There were probably others with them, others who equally feared their homes were no longer safe. Armed men roamed the streets snatching children, killing anyone who got in their way. For them the chance of finding a new home was preferable to dying in their beds. They left the area at different times, but came across each other on the road. Some banned together, formed a caravan for protection. Among them some joked that they looked like an invading horde. Others feared these same thoughts in the mind of people in the land to which they were headed. But who could believe it? Haggard women chasing unwashed children. Young men frantically keeping an eye on their families and their belongings, as well as the bandit filled horizon ahead, and feared plumes of pursuit behind.
They are painfully aware of the irony: they are going somewhere they are not wanted. They were heading into a land with a history of treating them as less than human. But where else could they go? What else could they do? Yes, they could stay. They could choose to hope and pray things would get better in their homeland. They could choose to die.
But they heard a Voice telling them to trust and travel. A Voice saying, “God will provide.” So they believe. They must believe.
God will provide for the Brown day-laborer with carpentry skills, his young, frightened wife, and their precociously wide-eye child.
The father looks at his son: his whole world. The one he does all things for. His boy could have such a bright future: could touch countless lives. But only if he survives.
Behind him he hears the other children: equally beautiful, equally precious in the eyes of their Father and their fathers. He worries about them as well. What will become of them in this new land? How will they be received at the boarder between death and life? The potential evil thereof is Edenic.
But they must trust God will provide. Trust that His Hand is everywhere, because hands are. His people stretch to the ends of the Earth and they will care for their own. Care for His own.
They will provide. God will provide.
Then Jesus will say to those at His left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”
Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
Then He will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
~ Matthew 25:41-46
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Addendum:
Some people need to review the socio-political definition of the word “immigrant.” While Jews had special status in the Roman Empire of the time, they were not automatically full citizens. Thus moving from the province of Judea into Egypt was a form of immigration for the holy family, even if it all fell under the auspice of the Roman Empire.
Some people need to review the socio-political definition of the word “refugee.” The threat posed by King Herod made the holy family, by definition, refugees fleeing from one province to another.
We will be writing a follow-up post to this one, based on the responses some “christians” proffered online. It should be eye-opening (sadly) for members of the Church.