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THURSDAY OF THE FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, JULY 08, 2021

Writer's picture: Maria KnoxMaria Knox


A Reading according to Gn 44:18-21, 23b-29; 45:1-5


Judah approached Joseph and said: “I beg you, my lord, let your servant speak earnestly to my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are the equal of Pharaoh. My lord asked your servants, ‘Have you a father, or another brother?’ So we said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and a young brother, the child of his old age. This one’s full brother is dead, and since he is the only one by that mother who is left, his father dotes on him.’ Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him. Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you shall not come into my presence again.’ When we returned to your servant our father, we reported to him the words of my lord.

“Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family. So we reminded him, ‘We cannot go down there; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go, for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.’ Then your servant our father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons. One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts; I have not seen him since. If you now take this one away from me, too, and some disaster befalls him, you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.’“

Joseph could no longer control himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers. But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace. “I am Joseph,” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still in good health?” But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him.

“Come closer to me,” he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.



REFLECTION:

"It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you."


I think we all lived through rough experiences in our lives: either family, economic, psychological, physical, or spiritual problems.


These issues might have even brought us "to our knees", or made us cry to God for help. We might have even questioned Him, "Why me Lord?"


Joseph suffered many years in Egypt as a slave. At the end he became Pharaoh's Vizier, second in command in all the land. Only this way was he able to save all his extended family, and God's people as well for generations to come.


Sometimes, many years after that evil has happened to us, we look back at that event and realize that somehow it was for the best.


Not the best economically or for personal gain or success, but best on how it might have saved our family spiritually, or how that suffering truly made us draw closer to God.


Just last Sunday we read from St. Paul "because of the abundance of the revelations. Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated." (2 Cor 12:7).


We could keep reading on St. Paul, on how he advises us how he is "content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10)


Let us remember that Our Lord truly suffered physically through His life-- physical pain, just like all of us do. He also suffered rejection, even from His kinsman in Nazareth. He was totally abandoned by most, even His closest friends during His trial, passion, and death on the cross.


He has taught us by example. And He is not asking from us something He would not have suffered Himself.


Suffering is a fact of life. We all suffer in one way or another. We all have a cross: a wayward spouse or child; a painful disease like cancer; etc. Of course, we need to look for physical help for these issues: find help for our loved one, go to the doctor to treat our physical diseases.


And we also can put our trust in the Lord about our suffering. This is called accepting God's will.


St. Paul tells us to go one step further: "and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him" (Rm 8:17)


Pope St. John Paul II tells us in Salvifici Doloris: "For Christ does not answer directly and he does not answer in the abstract this human questioning about the meaning of suffering. Man hears Christ's saving answer as he himself gradually becomes a sharer in the sufferings of Christ".


Our Patron, St. Alphonsus, in his Uniformity to God’s Will, explains to us that it is good to accept God's will. But it is even better to unify our will to that of God's: “We should consider everything happening to us in the present, and everything that will happen to us in the future, as coming from the hands of God.” And this is for both the good and the evil that happens to us. This goes beyond simply obeying God; it is truly “that we make one will of God’s will and ours… that God’s will alone, is our will.”


One good thing to do with our suffering is to offer it to God.

The glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines reparation as the act of “making amends for a wrong done or for an offense, especially for sin, which is an offense against God.” The penance that the priest gives in confession is an example of this sort of act.

Redemptive suffering refers to our sufferings we offer up to Jesus for the salvation of souls, whether our own or others. Such an offering can be specifically directed to making amends for our own sins or those of others. But it doesn’t have to be. One could offer one’s suffering for other reasons.

So, not all acts of reparation are acts of redemptive suffering, nor are all acts of redemptive suffering acts of reparation. But acts of redemptive suffering can be acts of reparation.

                                  ~ Catholic Answers, Karlo Broussard

Our apostolate is that of prayer. Prayer for the sanctification of priests. We pray the PAPA Prayer for Priests every day.


I invite you to pray for them, and offer our sufferings for them, so they can be the true pastors God called them to be.


I close with this reflection from our other Patron, St. John Vianney:

"My God, grant me the conversion of my parish; I am willing to suffer all my life whatsoever it may please thee to lay upon me; yes, even for a hundred years I am prepared to endure the sharpest pains, only let my people be converted."

God bless y'all!




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