Flight to Egypt from the Madness of Herod

 

"After the Magi had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him,  'Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.  Remain there until I tell you. Herod seeks the child to kill him.'  Therefore, he got up, took the child and his mother, and departed that night for Egypt, where they remained until the death of Herod.  This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'

When Herod realized that the wise men had deceived him, he flew into a rage and issued an order to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding area who were two years old or less, in accordance with the information that he had obtained from the wise men.  Thus were fulfilled the words that had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
     lamenting and sobbing bitterly:
Rachel weeping for her children,
     and refusing to be consoled,
because they were no more.”

After the death of Herod, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,  'Arise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought to kill the child are dead.'  He got up, took the child and his mother, and returned to the land of Israel.

But when Joseph learned that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod in Judea, he was afraid to go there.  After he had been warned in a dream concerning this, he withdrew to the region of Galilee.  He settled in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the Prophets might be fulfilled: 'He shall be called a Nazorean.'”

Matthew 2:13-30

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.  See that you do not neglect or abuse any of these little ones, for amen I say to you, their angels are always in the presence of the face of my father in heaven."

Matthew 18:6,10

"He became what we are, so that he might make us what he is."

Athanasius of Alexandria, Against Heresies

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God.  Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

By their works you will know them, the servants of lies, and madness, and demons.  For they serve their father, the devil, in their devotion to ravage innocence.