THIS UNIQUE EVENT in the lifetime of the Lord Jesus is prophetic par excellence as presented by the Gospel according to St Matthew the Apostle. The church now celebrates this incident on the 24th of Bashans (First of June).
However, the original celebration of this event took place, according to ancient church tradition, on the first Sunday after Christmas. Accordingly, the gospel reading on the Flight into Egypt takes place as complementary to and inseparable from the reading on the Magi. For the divine inspiration heeded the Magi in a dream not to take the same route back from which they had come. This was to avoid meeting Herod who hated the Child and wanted to kill him. He would thus never know his birth place, nor the location of his home nor who his kindred were. The divine inspiration then immediately mentions in the gospel reading how Joseph was reminded in a dream to wake up and take the Child and his mother and flee to Egypt away from the presence of Herod who intended to kill him.