I had
mentioned earlier in the week that the first readings in our daily masses this
week would be the story of Israel and his son Joseph, the story of how the
people of Israel ended up in Egypt. Today, we hear about Joseph being reunited with his father Israel and with his
brothers. Initially,
Israel must have feared for his life and the lives of his sons, since he
thought his beloved son Joseph had been lost, and he was afraid what would
happen to the rest of them. Yet,
God reassures Israel that it is safe to travel to Egypt, that this is part of
God’s plan, that God will be there with him. We
also might fear some of the places we go in life as well; we also might
question God’s plan for us. Indeed, we may have to travel some places in life that seem very unsafe for
us. When
I was a missionary in Ecuador, I used to have to go through the main bus
terminal in the capital city of Quito.
Our mission headquarters was located in the Quito, so I had to travel
through there quite a lot. There
were muggings and acts of violence in that bus terminal all the time. In fact, I knew of a priest who had been
assaulted there twice in the stairwells, one time to the point of having his
glasses and crucifix stolen from him, from a robber who had a rosary hanging
from around his neck nonetheless! I
always dreaded going through that bus terminal, but I really had no other
choice. In
reflecting upon that story, I recalled what Jesus told his disciples in today’s
Gospel: “I am sending you like sheep in
the midst of wolves.” Those
are not very reassuring words, are they? Yet, we put our trust in the
Lord. We
realize that God’s ways are sometimes very different than our own ways. As
the psalmist tells us today: “The salvation of the just comes from the
Lord.” May
we indeed put our trust in our salvation that only comes from our heavenly
Father through Christ, even in the midst of the reality we face here on earth.
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