March 6, 2015 Friday: 2nd Week of Lent
A Lenten Pilgrimage
March 6, 2015 Friday: 2nd Week of Lent
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic. When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him. (Genesis 37:3-4)
The Genesis account in the first reading today regarding Joseph’s brothers and their eventual sale of him is a well-planned crime. It occurred among brothers who shared the same blood of a father-Jacob. It was caused by jealousy and injustice, that is, favoritism in the family.
In the gospel reading, Jesus recounts by way of a parable the Jewish rejection of the prophets who came and ministered before him. Jesus reminds His listeners that He, too, is about to face exactly the same fate.
The scriptural texts make us wonder how such cruelties can happen to Joseph who loved his brothers and to the prophets and Jesus who unconditionally loved the Israelites their brothers.
Similar cruelties also take place in our families. How often do we face conflicts and suffer from the practices of injustice in our families? How often do we hold enmities toward our brothers and sisters until we can’t fraternally talk with them as we used to, because of the problems over farmlands, for instance or money inherited from parents or grandparents?
This holy season of Lent Jesus calls us to repent and make an effort to reconcile with our brothers and sisters and love one another again as Jesus has taught us. (Fr. Alexander Jebadu, SVD)
March 6, 2015 Friday: 2nd Week of Lent
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic. When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him. (Genesis 37:3-4)
The Genesis account in the first reading today regarding Joseph’s brothers and their eventual sale of him is a well-planned crime. It occurred among brothers who shared the same blood of a father-Jacob. It was caused by jealousy and injustice, that is, favoritism in the family.
In the gospel reading, Jesus recounts by way of a parable the Jewish rejection of the prophets who came and ministered before him. Jesus reminds His listeners that He, too, is about to face exactly the same fate.
The scriptural texts make us wonder how such cruelties can happen to Joseph who loved his brothers and to the prophets and Jesus who unconditionally loved the Israelites their brothers.
Similar cruelties also take place in our families. How often do we face conflicts and suffer from the practices of injustice in our families? How often do we hold enmities toward our brothers and sisters until we can’t fraternally talk with them as we used to, because of the problems over farmlands, for instance or money inherited from parents or grandparents?
This holy season of Lent Jesus calls us to repent and make an effort to reconcile with our brothers and sisters and love one another again as Jesus has taught us. (Fr. Alexander Jebadu, SVD)
