Take care of each other

Any of us who have children can perhaps remember a time when they were very young, a time when you would put them to bed, and then before you yourself went to bed, you would tiptoe into your children's rooms - even hours after they had already been sleeping - just to be sure that they were there.  You might have been home all evening.  Logically, you knew that they were asleep in their beds.  You knew that they were there, but until you could see for yourselves that they were safe - just one more time - you yourself would not be able to sleep.  This is the protective instinct of all parents.

Can you imagine what must have gone through Saint Joseph's mind when, after Jesus had been born, another angel appeared to him late in the night and confirmed his worst fear: that his child was in mortal danger, and that he would have to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt (Mt 2:13).  This was not merely a case of hiding his family, but of uprooting them, abandoning his work, their friends ... and fleeing to a foreign land so that his child would be safe.  Like any parent, Joseph got up instantly, took the child and his mother in the middle of the night and went away (cf Mt 2:14).

In order to protect his child, Joseph chose to give up everything and to become a refugee in a strange land.  All parents want what Saint Joseph wanted: to provide a safe home for their children.  Sometimes they are forced to flee great dangers and even to become refugees in order to do so.  Others are more fortunate: they can stay in their homes and protect their children by ensuring access to clean air, pure water, nourishing food, a good education and a future that is filled with hope.

Later in life, adults sometimes look back upon their own childhoods with gratitude for the ways in which their parents cared for them.  As our parents increase in age, the words of today's first reading take on a deeper meaning: My child, says Sirach, help your father in his old age ... even if his mind fails, be patient with him (Sir 3:12-13).

The wisdom of the scriptures reminds us that not only should parents care for their children, but children should also honour their fathers and respect their mothers (cf Sir 3:3-4).  With the example of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary to help us, we are all called to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience (Col 3:12) so that we can care for one another out of love at all stages of life.