HAVE YOU LEARNT SOMETHING FROM YOUR PAST MISTAKES?
WEDNESDAY 7th JULY,2021. WEDNESDAY OF THE FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.
READINGS; GENESIS 41:55-57; 42:5-7,17-24, PSALMS 33:2-3,10-11,18-19, MATTHEW 10:1-7.
The story of the selling of Joseph by his brothers is one of the most famous stories in the bible. Joseph who was nicknamed “the dreamer”, by his elder brothers has his childhood dream fulfilled.
He dreamt that his brothers were kneeling before him, this is what is happening in the first reading of today. His brothers come to Egypt to buy food for there was a famine in Israel.
Upon seeing them Joseph recognized them but he hid himself so that they do not recognize him with the intention of finding out the fate of his youngest brother Benjamin and also to know whether they had repented from the evil thing they did to him.
Sometimes we may judge and condemn these brothers that they were cruel, how can they sell their own young brother? But when we look deep into our hearts, our own lives, our own history, we find that we are not different from these brothers of Joseph for we have also been jealousy of our own brothers and sisters and given an opportunity we would have sold them.
We also have grudges against our own brothers and sisters, we have also sold our own brothers and sisters not for silver or gold but with our own words. We have sold them by not telling the truth, we have hidden the truth from our husbands, wives, children and our own brothers and sisters.
Other people have lost employment because of our lies, others are in prison because we have concealed the truth. The story of Joseph and his brothers should teach us something, our history should teach us and help us to repent of the evil things we have done against our own people like the brothers of Joseph.
Let us also learn from Joseph who was able to forgive his brothers. Let us remember that forgiveness is always possible no matter how deep the wound is, it is possible with the help of God.
This is a big lesson to all of us who have not forgiven our brothers and sisters of the wrongs they did a long time ago. Let us remember that for us to prosper in life we need to let go of the grudges we hold against our brothers and sisters.
Yes we know that it was very painful, but we cannot go own keeping grudges in our hearts for it is killing us, the sooner we let it go the better we become. Let us ask Jesus to help us to let it go.
LET US PRAY TODAY THAT WE MAY LEARN FROM OUR PAST MISTAKES AND ASK GOD TO HELP US BE ABLE TO REPENT AND BEGIN ANEW.
Dominus Miserere nobis
