20190711 HEALING
OLD WOUNDS
11 JULY, 2019,
Thursday, 14th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
These are the readings
for the feria
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First reading
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Genesis 44:18-21,23-29,45:1-5 ©
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Joseph reveals himself to his brothers
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Judah went up to Joseph and said, ‘May it
please my lord, let your servant have a word privately with my lord. Do not be
angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord questioned
his servants, “Have you father or brother?” And we said to my lord, “We have an
old father, and a younger brother born of his old age. His brother is dead, so
he is the only one left of his mother, and his father loves him.” Then you said
to your servants, “Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.” But you
said to your servants, “If your youngest brother does not come down with you,
you will not be admitted to my presence again.” When we went back to your
servant my father, we repeated to him what my lord had said. So when our father
said, “Go back and buy us a little food,” we said, “We cannot go down. If our
youngest brother is with us, we will go down, for we cannot be admitted to the
man’s presence unless our youngest brother is with us.” So your servant our
father said to us, “You know that my wife bore me two children. When one left
me, I said that he must have been torn to pieces. And I have not seen him to
this day. If you take this one from me too and any harm comes to him, you will
send me down to Sheol with my white head bowed in misery.” If I go to your
servant my father now, and we have not the boy with us, he will die as soon as
he sees the boy is not with us, for his heart is bound up with him. Then your
servants will have sent your servant our father down to Sheol with his white
head bowed in grief.’
Then
Joseph could not control his feelings in front of all his retainers, and he
exclaimed, ‘Let everyone leave me.’ No one therefore was present with him while
Joseph made himself known to his brothers, but he wept so loudly that all the
Egyptians heard, and the news reached Pharaoh’s palace.
Joseph
said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive?’ His
brothers could not answer him, they were so dismayed at the sight of him. Then
Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come closer to me.’ When they had come closer to
him he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do
not grieve, do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here, since God sent
me before you to preserve your lives.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 104(105):16-21 ©
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Remember the wonders the
Lord has done.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord called down a famine on the land;
he broke the staff that
supported them.
He had sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
Remember the wonders the
Lord has done.
or
Alleluia!
His feet were put in chains,
his neck was bound with iron,
until what he said came to pass
and the word of the Lord
proved him true.
Remember the wonders the
Lord has done.
or
Alleluia!
Then the king sent and released him
the ruler of the people set
him free,
making him master of his house
and ruler of all he possessed.
Remember the wonders the
Lord has done.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps94:8
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Mk1:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The kingdom of God is close at hand:
repent and believe the Good News.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 10:7-15 ©
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You received without charge: give without charge
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Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows:
‘As you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the
sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without
charge, give without charge. Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not
even with a few coppers for your purses, with no haversack for the journey or
spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the workman deserves his keep.
‘Whatever
town or village you go into, ask for someone trustworthy and stay with him
until you leave. As you enter his house, salute it, and if the house deserves
it, let your peace descend upon it; if it does not, let your peace come back to
you. And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as
you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. I tell you
solemnly, on the day of Judgement it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah as with that town.’
HEALING OLD
WOUNDS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Gn 44:18-21.23-29; 45:1-5; Ps 105:16-21; Mt 10:7-15]
We all have our fair
share of being betrayed and unjustly treated by others. Some of us have been abused by our
parents, elders, teachers and friends. We have suffered discrimination at
home, in school and at work. We feel humiliated, despised and
resentful. Sometimes, it is very difficult to forgive those whom we love
most for betraying our trust and our love. To discover that your best
friend is secretly wooing and dating your partner is something which we cannot
forgive.
When that happens, we
can either react by falling into depression or brace ourselves for the battle
ahead of us. We
can take flight or fight. Those of us who are cowed by our enemies and
failures will end up destroying our lives. However, some, instead of
resigning themselves to the condemnation of the world, seek to prove to the
world that they are better and stronger than what they think of them. Our
failures and rejections in life only serve to make us stronger. We work
hard to arrive at the top, to be successful in our studies, career or
business. The day when we are able to show ourselves to be better than
our enemies, we feel great about ourselves.
But some of us go even
beyond just feeling great about ourselves. We use our newfound status,
wealth and power to go after those who have hurt us. We are not happy that we are doing
well now but we want to seek revenge on those who have made us suffer all those
years when we had to fight in order to stay afloat. We seek revenge
and desire to see them suffer for their sins against us. We purposely flaunt
our wealth to make them feel envious of us. And if they are in need now,
we would not help them even if they ask us. Rather, we want to make sure
they go through the same misery that we went through because of them.
Adopting such an
attitude actually causes us more harm than good. Although revenge seems to be sweet,
yet, it only hardens our hearts, makes us more incapable of love. When we
are negative towards others and hostile towards our enemies, we are only
growing our anger, resentment and negativisms. As St Paul says, “If you
sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow
to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” (Gal 6:8) Indeed, if we want to be
prosperous and happy, we need to learn how to let go of old wounds, forgive
them so that we can be truly liberated.
This was the case of
Joseph in today’s first reading. His brothers were envious of him because he was loved
the most by their father. Furthermore, Joseph boasted to them about his
dreams that one day he would tower over his brothers. They were resentful
of him and so they plotted to kill him, but eventually sold him to the traders
who brought him to Egypt. Over the next twenty years, he worked himself
up. He became a favored slave of one of Pharaoh’s officers,
Potiphar. He was wrongly imprisoned for having an affair with the wife of
the Potiphar. Then while in prison, the jailor took a liking to him and
they became friends. He interpreted the dream of the butler which came
true, namely, that he would be released from prison and be restored to his
former office. Two years later when Pharaoh had some unsettling dream
which his magicians could not interpret, it was the butler who remembered
Joseph and introduced him to Pharaoh. From then on, he was made second in
command of the house of Egypt because of his wisdom. He interpreted
the dream as a prediction of seven years of plenty and seven years of
famine. Hence, wisely and prudently, Joseph stored the grains during the
years of plenty to prepare for the years of famine ahead. True enough,
when famine struck Egypt and the surrounding countries, only Egypt had
grain. Thus, all the peoples, even from other nations, turned to Egypt
for help.
It is within this
context that Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy grain, leaving his
youngest son, Benjamin, behind. When Joseph saw them, he did not take
revenge but only tested their sincerity to see if they were remorseful of what
they did. He was not resentful of them. He could have taken revenge
against them for what they did to him. He could have had them punished
and sent to prison for attempted murder and lying to the father about his
death, causing him grief for the last 20 years. But he did not.
Instead, he forgave them and called them to him and said, “Come closer to me. I
am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt.” He still acknowledged
them as his brothers even though they did not twenty years ago. He
was a man with a magnanimous heart. For many of us, if we were in
Joseph’s shoes, we would gladly see them suffer for their evil crime
instead. But he did not.
What made Joseph forgive
his brothers? He recognized the providence of God. He said, “But now, do not grieve, do not
reproach yourselves for having sold me here, since God sent me before you to
preserve your lives.” He saw his trials as part of God’s plan for him to
fulfill his role and the dream of being a ruler. The mistakes of his
brothers were seen in the light of how God makes good out of evil. This
is what St Paul himself said as well. “We know that all things work
together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his
purpose”. (Rom 8:28) From hindsight, he saw the hand of
God in all that happened to him for his good. It was a necessary path for
God to work His plans in making Israel a kingdom. It was what the Lord
said to the apostles as well. “‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that
the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then
beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things
about himself in all the scriptures.” (Lk 24:25-27)
When we recognize that
what we are today is the result of God’s grace, then we should be thankful and
not continue to hold grudges against those who have made our lives difficult. The obstacles they placed for us
have been used by God as stepping stones for our growth and purification.
The trials, instead of weakening us, have made us stronger. That is why,
instead of feeling great about ourselves, taking pride in what we have
achieved, we should be humbled that God has given us the grace to redeem
ourselves through the angels and opportunities that He had sent to us along the
way. Without His grace, we will not be where we are today. This is
why the Lord told the apostles when they were sent out. He reminded them,
“You received without charge, give without charge.”
Indeed, in the gospel,
Jesus invites us to be messengers of peace and reconciliation. He told the Twelve, “As you go,
proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick,
raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. As you enter his
house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, let your peace descend upon it;
if it does not, let your peace come back to you.” We are called to be
healers and reconcilers. The physically and emotionally sick need
healing, forgiveness and mercy. Those who are dead in sin and have given
up hope in life because of loneliness and betrayal look for our understanding
and our love. The lepers who are marginalized from society because of
their past, their failures and sins are asking to be welcomed back to the
community. Those who are misled by the Evil One and under the bondage of
sin seek liberation and true freedom. For all of us, we are desperate to
find peace in our hearts, a peace which comes from knowing that God has
forgiven us all our sins and negligence and that we are loved unconditionally
by Him.
But we can do this work
only if we also trust in His divine providence. We must not take things
into our own hands in the work of conversion but allow God to find ways to
change the hearts of people.
Hence, the Lord advised His apostles, “Whatever town or village you go into,
ask for someone trustworthy and stay with him until you leave. And if
anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out
of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. I tell you solemnly,
on the day of Judgement it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom and
Gomorrah as with that town.” Let God deal with them!
On our part, we must
rely on His grace alone. “Provide
yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with a few coppers for your purses,
with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for
the workman deserves his keep.” We must depend on Him and not on our
strength and our efforts. We simply remain open to the grace of God that
comes to us each day of our lives, inviting us to cooperate with His divine
plan for us. When we remember the wonders of the Lord as the psalmist
reminds us, we will have greater confidence in His divine plan for us. In
this way, we will find happiness, peace and fulfillment.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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