Homily for Wednesday, 8 July 2015– Ferial

Wednesday of the 14th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Genesis 41:55-57, 42:5-7a, 17-24a;  Psalm 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19; Matthew 10:1-7

Have any of us ever been angry at another person, and then this person ends up being in need? Perhaps this person is in need precisely because of poor choices she or he has made. The need of a person with whom we are angry presents us with two choices: Deny help to the person with whom we are angry or satisfy her or his need.

In Genesis; our first reading, Joseph is faced with these two choices. A famine strikes Egypt. Just before this in Genesis, Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, but Joseph gains a position of privilege in Pharaoh’s court. Joseph has been placed in charge of food rations during the famine. And who but Joseph’s own brothers appear before him, hungry and asking him for rations?

Joseph could have sent his brothers away to die of hunger as revenge for their having sold him into slavery. But instead he gives them food rations so that they and their families may live. Importantly here Joseph does not allow his brothers to escape consequences for their actions. (There is often a fine line between forgiveness and holding one another accountable.) We hear that Joseph “spoke sternly to” his brothers. One of Joseph’s brothers is to remain imprisoned while two of them bring the food rations to their families. And then they are to bring their youngest brother back to Joseph as a witness that the rations were in fact given to their families. At the end of this encounter among Joseph and his brothers we hear that Joseph “wept” as his brothers went on their way.

There are consequences for the brothers having sold Joseph into slavery. Yet just as importantly Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers; his supplying them with rations does not depend on their repentance beforehand. Joseph has already forgiven his brothers before they ask him for food. Does God not invite us to the same forgiveness; the same anticipation of the needs of our brothers and sisters as shown by Joseph in our first reading today?

Jesus’ instruction to the Twelve in Matthew’s Gospel not to go to the pagans or Samaritans but first “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” might be a similar invitation to that through the encounter among Joseph and his brothers to forgiveness that anticipates one another’s need. Is this not so different from holding grudges, engaging in gossip or personal attacks? Jesus, like Joseph, is not asking us to let those who have wronged us escape consequences. But Jesus is asking us, out of love, to satisfy one another’s basic needs (food, water, shelter, and so forth); to uphold one another’s human dignity regardless of whether another person “deserves” our charity. And Jesus, like Joseph, asks us to forgive even before others ask us for forgiveness. Have we not at times been in need of forgiveness ourselves; been among “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”?

To anticipate the basic needs of our brothers and sisters, even when their actions or choices may have put them in need; to anticipate one another’s need for forgiveness: These are our duties of love for one another. These are values of the “Kingdom of heaven.”