(Please read the Scripture passages first, before the homily.)
There are two Josephs. Joseph of Egypt was one of the twelve patriarchs of Israel. He had dreams. Some of them got him in trouble and some of them saved others from trouble. He saved the Israelites by bringing them into Egypt.
The second Joseph also had dreams, dreams that saved people. He likewise took his family to Egypt for their safety.
In the Exodus from Egypt, God made the Israelites God’s own children. We can say that out of Egypt, God called the collective people of Israel his son. In our story today, when Joseph brought Mary and Jesus back home out of Egypt, God called Jesus God’s son and brought this Son out of Egypt.
In the book of Genesis, Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She died giving birth to Benjamin. She wept because she was dying during childbirth. In Jeremiah, the prophet used the story of her weeping to describe the death of the tribes of Joseph and Benjamin when they were sent into exile. Matthew used her story in the Gospel to describe the death of the infants of Bethlehem, killed by Herod.
People sometimes ask if Herod really killed the baby boys. I do not know. If he did, he probably killed about twenty children, given the size of Bethlehem. Did Herod in fact kill them? Even if he had not killed them, from stories told about him, we can say that he was the type of person who would have killed them.
What kind of person are we? How much are we like Herod, absorbed in ourselves, scheming to advance ourselves, and walking over others? How much are we like Rachel, weeping for the harms others suffer? Which Joseph better describes us, the immature dreamer or the mature person who can manage well a household?
A better question that these is the one that asks how much are we like children of God? God has called us out of our egypts to be God’s own children. Whether we see ourselves as a Herod, as a Rachel, or as a Joseph, God has determined that each of us should be a child, son or daughter, of God. God has called us and made us God’s own Son. We have escaped the clutches of the evil king and are secure in God’s family, like Jesus who was called by God out of Egypt be God’s Son.