Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the story of Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, whose favouritism showed by his father caused the enmity of his brothers and led him to be sold by them as a slave who was then sold to the Egyptians. And we knew how Joseph rose through his years of difficulty and suffering to become the Regent of all Egypt, the second man in the whole country after the Pharaoh himself.
We heard in today’s first reading how a great famine enveloped Egypt and all of the world, but thanks to what God had done through Joseph, Egypt was fully prepared to face the famine with its years of preparation during the time of plenty. And the other sons of Jacob came to Egypt, save for Benjamin, to buy food and grains to alleviate the famine they were facing in the land of Canaan.
In the Gospel reading, we heard how Jesus called His twelve Apostles, the twelve chosen from among many to be His principal disciples, the ones to become the pillars of His Church and the spearheads of His works after His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. And He commanded them to go to the villages and towns and to gather back the lost sheep of Israel.
There is a great connection here between the readings which we may not be able to realise on face value, as we need to look deeper into them. The twelve Apostles of Christ were chosen in such a number to represent the tribes of Israel, the twelve sons of Jacob. So just as the Lord gathered His twelve disciples to Himself, He symbolised the gathering of all the sons of Israel, the people of God, once scattered around the world, back to His loving embrace and presence.
And just as there was a great famine all over the world including that of Canaan, where Israel or Jacob and his sons lived, there were great darkness awaiting the people of God scattered around the world because of their sins and disobedience. They also suffered from hunger, not the hunger for bread or food, but the spiritual hunger of the heart and soul, the desire and longing for the Lord to come and fill their hearts and nourish their souls.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, looking at the readings of today’s Scripture readings, there is something that we need to realise, and that is, our Lord is concerned with us, and He is thoroughly concerned about the state of our soul, whether we are in a state of grace, or instead in a state where sins and disobedience have brought us far away from His salvation and from His love.
The sons of Israel all represented us in this world, from how they plotted against Joseph out of jealousy for his dreams and his being the favourite son of their father. We are all by our nature selfish and thinking first of ourselves, and we do not like it when we see someone else doing better than us or having better things than us. This is where our desires, greed, jealousy and haughtiness become our undoing.
Therefore, what do we need to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all learn from the example of Joseph, who if we read the story today in the first reading from the Book of Genesis to its conclusion, then we ought to know that he forgave his brothers, despite all that they had done to him, all the suffering they had caused him. That is the example which our Lord Jesus Christ had shown us as well. He shows us that the way of the Lord is forgiveness and love.
May Almighty God guide us on our way, so that we may walk faithfully in His ways, and be reunited to Him with one another, so that just as He gathered back all the sons of Israel through the means of Joseph, He may also gather all of us mankind back into His loving presence, that we who were once sundered from His presence may find a good reunion and unity to Him who loves us all and wants us back to His embrace. God bless us all. Amen.