+ Powerful readings today! The first reading is
about the suspenseful interaction between Joseph and his brothers who threw him
into a well and then sold him into slavery. It is a perfect example of the old
proverb: “what goes around, comes around,” or “you get what you give” or “surprise!
it’s me.”
Sometimes the ones who are
dismissed as insignificant, or a threat to the system, even a family system,
are actually specially chosen figures in an entirely different system, such as
Joseph, who became governor of the land of Egypt, and the sole distributor of
rations in a time of national famine and starvation. And it is here that he
comes face to face with his brothers who disowned him.
What goes around, comes
around. Now Joseph is the one who could, at a single command or signal deny
them of their life-saving provisions – but in effect, he dealt with them, as he
had been dealt by them: he saved their lives, and gave them food – but not
before he heard their confirming story that identified them as his brothers,
and how they had a change of heart.
The change of heart saved
their lives, and for us it is the same, a change of heart can save us, even us
who have been given and gift of independent life, from the ones who disowned,
disavowed and disconnected from us.
What goes around comes around,
but when good gifts are given to the perpetrators: then God’s justice is done,
God’s compassion becomes manifest, and God’s mercy rules.
The gospel passage confirms
all this: when Jesus selects those who his wishes to go out and distribute
God’s kind of mercy, a disproportionate kind that show an overabundance of
overlooking past offense and wants only the physical and spiritual welfare of
these sheep, the “lost sheep” – who most of the time in their own naivety and
ignorance do all kinds of uncharitable, and even cruel things to their own
“brothers and sisters” of the human family!
May God be praised for dealing
mercifully and lovingly with us, who actually don’t deserve it, often times
because of our immature and self-seeking inclinations!
Amen.
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