In the sequence of first readings for weekday Masses, we have just made a huge leap from Jacob (Gen 28) to the end of the story of Joseph and his brothers (Gen 41). A quick synopsis of the story would include: his brothers, all older, were jealous of Joseph and colluded to sell him into slavery in Egypt. Long story, short, Joseph eventually thrives and serves as a chancellor to Pharaoh himself. A famine hit Israel and Joseph’s brothers came to buy grain. That all serves as background to our first reading today.
I have misgivings about Joseph as he refuses to acknowledge them and begins a cruel cat and mouse game with them. Joseph places them under guard for three days, so that they themselves experience part of Joseph’s fate. The encounter triggers something in Joseph, something that only plays out in the longer reading that is completed in tomorrow’s readings. Perhaps Joseph is asking, “Why did his father, who loved him so much, not come to find and rescue him?” During the time of his captivity in Egypt there were several substitute “fathers” he had spent his life trying to please: Potiphar, the keeper of the prison, Pharaoh.
We are used to the children’s version of the Joseph story. Maybe that is the location of my misgivings about Joseph’s behavior. But a real life read of the story locates Joseph in a real world of fear, pain and suffering. Joseph is a victim of abuse, violated and abandoned by those he had trusted. His anger and bitterness had to be expressed when his brothers unexpectedly fell into his hands.
Healing begins when he hears his brother’s first signs of remorse and regret for what they had done. And Joseph wept. The story and the healing continue in tomorrow’s first reading. Then the fuller story will be revealed, and the part of Joseph kept hidden from his brothers will emerge, including the faith that had sustained him. Then Joseph finds the fullness of healing.
Forgiveness and healing can take time – and our faith is what will sustain us in the time between our desire for revenge and reconciliation.
Image credit: Peter von Cornelius, The Recognition of Joseph by his Brothers, 1817, Public Domain