Joseph’s brothers went on a journey to the land of Egypt to seek food for their families because of the great famine, in our first reading for mass today. Joseph’s brothers were not the only starving families in the land. In fact, the scriptures today says that “all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world.”
It’s funny how things work out. God’s ways are truly not our ways. If you remember, Joseph had a dream that he and his brothers were working in the fields binding sheaves of wheat, when suddenly his sheaf rose to an upright position, and his brothers’ sheaves formed a ring around Joseph’s sheaf and bowed down to it. This was the last straw for Joseph’s brothers. They though Joseph was conceited and was trying to say that he was more important than them. They already thought that their father loved Joseph more than them so this was really the final straw and they plotted to kill him. They ended up giving Joseph to the Egyptians as a slave though. Many years later, Joseph’s family thought he was lost for good, but in reality he had become a governor in Egypt. The reason Joseph became the Pharaoh’s governor is because he knew the meaning of the Pharaoh’s dream. The Pharaoh was brighter than Joseph’s brothers though, because he believed what Joseph said about his dream. In the end, Joseph’s interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dream came true and that is why everyone was coming to him for grain during the famine, including Joseph’s brothers.
It turned out that Joseph’s dream came true in the end, because his brothers came to him for grain. They did indeed bow down before him, because his brothers did not recognize Joseph in his Egyptian clothing. When Joseph saw his brothers he turned and wept at the sight of them. Joseph still loved his brothers in spite of everything they did to him. They tried to kill him and then sold him into slavery to the Egyptians, but when Joseph looked at them, all he knew was that he still loved his brothers. He was lost to them though and one knew he had survived in Egypt. This was God’s will though, because Joseph’s dream eventually came true many years later.
However, in today’s gospel, Jesus tells his apostles not to go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town, but to go to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus sought out this lost and scattered people, to bring them back into the Kingdom of God. And where is the Kingdom of God? Joseph in the old testament reading today has the answer. The Kingdom of God is within us. Joseph loved his brothers. He truly did. Joseph’s heart was in the right place. He never stopped loving his family and irregardless of the past, he wanted to be reunited with them. Christ also wanted the lost people of Israel to be reunited and he sent his apostles on a journey to find them, wherever they were scattered.
Christ still does this. He still calls us to set aside any differences we may have in our own families and to be reunited with one another, no matter where we may live. Our families are often scattered all over the country and it is easy to let them slip out of our fingers, or worse, out of our hearts. There is an old saying “out of sight, out of mind”, but this is not how Jesus calls us to live. We have so many excuses why we don’t visit family members or friends who do not live nearby, but do we really make the effort? Or is it too much trouble?
Today’s scriptures show us that God and Jesus both want us to stay on touch with our family members and friends and visit them. We should not let distances stand in the way of maintaining the bonds of love and friendship with those we care about the most. The look of joy on their faces will be so worth the effort. We will not realize how much we miss them until we see them and hopefully, we will not be like Joseph and cry when we realize just how much we really do love them.
