July 9 - Wednesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

(Gn.41:55-57,42:5-7,17-24;   Ps.33:2-3,10-11,18-19,22;   Mt.10:1-7)

 

“The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him.”

 

In our gospel, Jesus commissions the twelve apostles to go forth after “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” in order “to expel unclean spirits and cure sickness and disease of every kind” and bring His people into “the reign of God.”  In our first reading, we see that “famine had gripped the whole world,” and the lost and hungry sheep of Israel, the sons of Jacob themselves come to Egypt and their forsaken brother Joseph to find food, to find healing for their ills.  They have sinned terribly against Joseph, and against God, by selling their younger brother into slavery because of their jealousy of him.  Now that God has favored him who was so forsaken, he stands above them with their very lives in his hands, holding not only their food as procurator of Egypt, but also with the power to cast them into prison, or to release them.

Do we see the similarity between Joseph and Jesus?  Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Savior of the nation of Israel and, in the flesh, one of their own – their favored Son.  And He who will be forsaken and sold to the Romans for crucifixion, He whose elder brothers will betray Him into the power of this world, is He who holds their, and our, very lives in His hands.  It is when He opens His hands that they are fed; when He says the word, they, and we, are cast into prison – or released.  By His word all demons are expelled and all infirmities healed.  He indeed has every right to cast our souls into everlasting prison and torment; but, like Joseph, He takes pity on those who have wounded Him: like Joseph, we know that “He wept.”

But His weeping does not come automatically.  Just as with Joseph, it is prompted by the repentance of His brothers, who have so despised him but now recognize their sin and bewail it to the Lord.  His forgiveness