Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 12, 2007 - Fourteenth Thursday in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 44:18-21, 23B-29;45:1-5 and Matthew 10:7-15]I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you."
The story of Joseph comes to its climax with the revelation of Joseph to his brothers that he is the one they sold into slavery years ago! He makes this revelation, even though he knows who they are, only after hearing Judah's speech about Jacob, their father, and the last child, Benjamin, on whom Jacob has bestowed all his affection - the very thing that led the brothers to sell Joseph out of envy! Joseph has insisted that they bring Benjamin to Egypt before he will give them grain! After hearing Judah's speech about Jacob and Benjamin, Joseph can control himself no longer and breaks down. He then reveals his identity and forgives his brothers because he sees all that has happened as being part of God's plan to save all their lives in the famine! Forgiveness and perspective often go together. How many of us could place such a betrayal in that kind of perspective? I have been challenged a number of times to see certain traumatic events in my life as fitting in a larger perspective which makes forgiveness not only necessary but easier. I admit that it took time to develop the perspective but the healing was considerable. There is no changing the nature of the act of selling Joseph into slavery. Yet, that act ultimately led to his being brought to Egypt and rising to a position where he would ultimately have to save the very brothers who sold him! I do not believe that kind of perspective is possible without faith. The old expression rings true: "To err is human, to forgive is divine." AMEN
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