Thursday 13 July 2023

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Today is Thursday the 13th of July, in the 14th week of Ordinary time.

One Hope Project sings, ‘My Soul Rests’. Can I make these words my own today?

Here in this mystery

Here in Your majesty

I find myself

With nothing to offer

Your love surrounds me

You give me yourself

My soul rests, my soul rests

In your embrace

My spirit sings, my spirit sings

All your praise

Here in your presence

The whole host of heaven

Bows down low

There’s no higher honour

No love that’s greater

You make us your own

You’re so close, Jesus, so close to me

Like the breath in my lungs

You’re so close, Jesus, so close to me

Like the breath in my lungs

Today’s reading is from the Book of Genesis.

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

Then Judah stepped up to him and said, ‘O my lord, let your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his servants, saying, “Have you a father or a brother?” And we said to my lord, “We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead; he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.” Then you said to your servants, “Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him.” Then you said to your servants, “Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.” When we went back to your servant my father we told him the words of my lord. And when our father said, “Go again, buy us a little food”, we said, “We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother goes with us, will we go down; for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.” Then your servant my father said to us, “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. If you take this one also from me, and harm comes to him, you will bring down my grey hairs in sorrow to Sheol.”

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, ‘Send everyone away from me.’ So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come closer to me.’ And they came closer. He said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.

Judah is the brother who suggested selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites rather than killing him. Now he is the one pleading the family’s cause to the unrecognised Joseph.

How do you hear Judah’s voice?

Have there been times when you have had to plead a cause, not knowing if it would fall on deaf ears?

Have you ever spoken to God in this way?

Judah’s passion breaks into Joseph’s resolve. Maybe he remembers the envy and resentment of his brothers when they plotted to get rid of him. Now, he hears how time has affected the family, his broken-hearted, aged father, a beloved younger brother. Judah is different – everything is different – reconciliation is at hand.

Do you recall a moment of reconciliation like this?

‘For God sent me before you to preserve life’, to find the good in difficult circumstances, to see God’s hand in challenging times - what is your response, in faith, to this account?

In a time of prayer, share your feelings with the Lord, whose open heart will always hear and respond to what we truly need.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.