Despite
being officially recognised as authentic by the local Cardinal
Patriarch, the fact that Our Lady chose to appear over Coptic churches
in Egypt, rather than Catholic churches elsewhere in the world has
baffled some commentators, and can perhaps explain the lack of
adequate devotion to these apparitions amongst Catholics. It seems that
many have failed to recognise the true significance of these
apparitions lies above all in their timing and location. The Virgin Mary
chose to appear over Coptic churches for two very simple reasons -
firstly because she is re-tracing the steps of the Holy Family's flight
into Egypt (and the vast majority of churches in Egypt are
Coptic, especially those in locations associated with the sojourn of
the Holy Family), and secondly, that despite not being in full communion
with Rome, they show that Our Lady has deep love and respect for the
Coptic Church, which like the rest of Oriental Orthodoxy, as well as the
Eastern Orthodox Church, offers a great devotion to her.
While
some have recognised that Our Lady is in some way re-enacting the
journey of the Holy Family during their flight into Egypt, none (to my
knowledge) have went on to ponder the primary reason for their escape
into the Egyptian wilderness and attempt to re-apply the
same conditions to a modern context; or compare them with the account of
Woman adorned with the Sun given in Rev 12 - which is basically the
story of the nativity seen through an apocalyptic lens.
The main
and indeed only reason that the Holy Family fled into Egypt, was to
escape from King Herod, who in an attempt to quash any potential
Messianic usurpers to his throne, had ordered the massacre of any
infants in the vicinity of Bethlehem under two years of age:
Now
when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph
in a dream and said, “Rise, 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.” And he rose and took the child and his
mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death
of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,
“Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had
been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all
the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two
years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from
the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet
Jeremiah:
“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
But
when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to
Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to
the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.” And
he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of
Israel. (Matt 2:13-21)
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