Thursday of Week 14 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 10:7-15

We continue the apostolic discourse of Jesus to his disciples. Jesus now instructs them on what they are to say and do. They are to proclaim that:

The kingdom of heaven [God] has come near.

This, of course, is true because of the presence and work of Jesus. Jesus is himself the very embodiment of the Kingdom; he is the ultimate Kingdom person. The Kingship of God is fully present in him. But it will also be present in the Twelve who will do the same things that Jesus is doing: curing the sick, raising the dead, healing lepers, liberating people from evil spirits. Later, we will see the Apostles doing all these things in the Acts of the Apostles, and the Church continues to do these things.

Today, all of us are called to proclaim the Kingship, the Lordship of God by our words, actions and lifestyle. The Church is still called to bring healing into people’s lives. We may not raise people literally from the dead, but there are many who are virtually dead, though physically alive, and who need to be brought back to a fully human life.

Most of our societies today do not have lepers, but we have, in every society, people who are marginalised and pushed out to the fringes. They need to be reintegrated. There may be people in some places who are genuinely in the possession of evil spirits, but there are far more who are in the grip of more mundane demons such as nicotine, alcohol and other drugs, or who are caught up in the materialism, consumerism, hedonism and sexism of our time. They too need to be liberated. Yes, there is a lot of work to be done—by each one of us in our own way and in accordance with our gifts and life situation.

Jesus also tells his disciples to travel light. They are not to charge for their service. They are not to find their security in the possession of material things, especially money. To increase their freedom, they should go around with the absolute minimum. In our lives, possessions, and our concern about them, can be very controlling.

Of course, what Jesus does expect is that everyone working for the Kingdom has their needs looked after by those they serve. This is where their security lies: in being sure of a place to sleep and food to eat. In return, the missionary brings the Lord’s peace to any home that offers hospitality. This is a vision of a society which is hard to find in our own day, although it is lived in varying degrees of commitment by religious in the Catholic Church, as well as by some followers of other religions like Hinduism and Buddhism.

St Teresa of Calcutta’s (Mother Teresa) Sisters come pretty close to the Gospel vision, as do the Little Sisters/Brothers of Charles de Foucauld. And that is really the meaning of the second half of today’s passage. St Teresa once said: “I do own things, but they do not own me.” That is where she differed from so many of us.

Jesus expects the missionary to find a place to stay wherever that person goes. And, once a suitable place is found, the missionary should stay there and not be moving around looking for more desirable conditions. On the other hand, Jesus has hard words for those who refuse hospitality to his messengers. Shaking the dust from one’s feet was symbolical. The dust of any gentile country was regarded as unclean. By implication, so was the dust of an inhospitable community. Jesus tells them:

…it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

In the Middle East, hospitality has always been important. Unfortunately, in our security-conscious urban Western world, it does not flourish—largely because of those unnecessary possessions which Jesus would liberate us from.

There are two things for us to reflect on today:

First, where is our security? Are we burdened down by the things we own? Are we owned by them? How free are we to live a fully Christian life as envisioned by the Gospel? How free are we to do the things that Jesus says we should be doing: bringing healing and wholeness into people’s lives?

Second, what kind of hospitality do we give to those—whoever they are—who are generously doing the Lord’s work? Or, if they are not Christians, who are doing the work of the Kingdom?

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Thursday of Week 14 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Genesis 44:18-21,23-29; 45:1-5

We continue the story of Joseph and his brothers. In our reading, large sections have been omitted from the biblical narrative and what immediately follows below is by way of a lead-in to the actual reading.

Still not knowing the real identity of the Pharaoh’s chief minister, the brothers return to their father Jacob with the food Joseph had given them, but without their brother Simeon, who is being held as a hostage until they bring Benjamin with him on their next visit. Joseph has expressly asked to see their youngest brother, although at this stage they do not know the real reason.

With great reluctance—because he has already lost Joseph and Simeon—Jacob agrees to let his youngest and dearest son Benjamin go back with them to Egypt. They have to go because the famine continues and their food has run out.

They are received by Joseph with great pomp and ceremony. When he sees his younger brother, his only full brother by the same mother, Joseph is overcome with emotion and has to leave the hall until he recovers. After this meeting, the brothers are sent home again, laden with food. But unknown to them, Joseph has arranged to have a silver cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack.

While already on their way, servants of Joseph are sent to stop them and accuse the brothers of theft. The brothers are horrified when they find the cup in Benjamin’s sack; now, he will have to stay behind and presumably be severely punished. Knowing their father’s love for Benjamin, the brothers are distraught at this turn of events.

It is at this point that today’s reading begins. Judah, the eldest of the brothers, pleads on behalf of his youngest brother, but even more on behalf of his father who will be heartbroken if Benjamin is not returned home, something the brothers had sworn to Jacob they see to.

This whole passage (we read only a part) is one of the longest speeches in biblical story-telling and marks the turning point in the brothers’ present dealings with Joseph. Judah is the hero of this scene, remarkably retelling the whole story as it has unfolded so far.

He speaks to Joseph with great deference and fear. He uses the language of a subject speaking to a high official. He even uses the expected flattery, saying “you are like Pharaoh himself.” He tells Joseph that, when they left home the first time, there was just their father, who is already very old, and their youngest brother. The father is particularly attached to Benjamin because the only other boy he had by Rachel was Joseph, who, of course, all believe is dead.

Even so, Jacob had to let his brothers bring Benjamin to be seen by Joseph or they would not get any more food which they so badly needed as the famine continued. Now, Benjamin has been arrested because of the cup, presumed stolen by him (found in his sack of food). Judah tells Joseph about the words of Jacob before they left for Egypt with Benjamin:

You know that my wife bore me two sons; one left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.

Jacob believed that this was the fate of Joseph because, when the brothers returned home one day without Joseph, they produced his famous coat of many colours saturated with blood. Jacob believed it was Joseph’s blood, the result of being killed by an animal. As told earlier in this story, his coat had actually been dipped in animal blood precisely so that Jacob would reach this conclusion. The reader, of course, knows that Joseph had actually been sold into slavery by his brothers to a group of traders on their way to Egypt. (And the rest, as they say, is history.)

Judah, who is telling Joseph this, knows very well what happened, and he and all his brothers are now consumed in feelings of guilt. Jacob’s final words to his sons had been:

If you take this one [Benjamin] also from me and harm comes to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in sorrow to Sheol.

In verses not included in today’s reading, Judah then offers himself as a slave to Joseph, if only Benjamin can be allowed to return home to his father.

Joseph now can no longer control his feelings. He orders all his retainers out of the audience hall and then, for the first time, reveals his true identity to his brothers, and for the third time in this story, he breaks down into great sobbing:

…so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

Joseph then asks about his father, but the brothers are speechless, partly out of sheer astonishment (is it a ghost?) and partly out of fear of vengeance on the part of their wronged brother. But he has already teased them enough, and he reassures them they have nothing to fear. He then tells them to come closer to him. Up to now, they would have had to keep a very respectful distance before such a senior official in the Pharaoh’s court. He now wants to speak with them as family. And far from being angry with them, he shows them that everything that happened was in the providence of God, saying:

…now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

Another example of God’s writing straight with crooked lines; another example of how good can come out of something which, at the time, could only be seen as evil. There is a lesson here for our lives, too.

There are striking parallels here between Joseph and Jesus. Jesus also was sold and betrayed by brothers in Israel into the hands of a foreign power. He forgave them:

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)

And because of their actions, he became the Saviour of so many.

Like Joseph, Jesus took “the form of a slave”, but went even further in the utter emptying of himself on the cross. As Joseph became rich in money and power, we have become rich, not with money or power, but in love and grace because of the poverty, destitution and sufferings of our Lord.

The Jerusalem Bible makes the following comment:

“This narrative, unlike what has gone before, proceeds without any visible divine intervention and without any new revelation; it is one long lesson: Providence thwarts men’s plots and turns their malice to profit….Betrayed by his brothers, Joseph is rescued by God who makes the betrayal itself serve the divine purpose, for its result—the arrival of Jacob’s sons in Egypt—is the first step in the making of a chosen people. This theme of salvation (“the survival of a numerous people”, Gen 50:20) runs through the whole of the Old Testament to be enriched in the New. Here, as later with the Exodus, we have a preliminary sketch of the Redemption.”

All in all, the story of Joseph is one of the most touching and most human in the whole of the Bible. Next to David, Joseph must be one of the most attractive personalities in the Hebrew Testament. The whole story is well worth reading. The two passages we have in our liturgy do not do justice to the richness of the whole account.

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