Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I’m entitling my reflection today “Hard Mercy,” because I believe that true mercy is revealed and extended in the deepest depths of pain and suffering. At times we may exercise mercy as a “soft skill,” offered casually in situations that don’t cost us much personally. True mercy shows itself most when it comes at great personal price and inner sacrifice. Mercy can only be modeled after the Cross of Calvary. Joseph exemplifies this kind of mercy. Today, may we grow in our understanding of God’s mercy toward us and may we be filled with mercy toward even the most difficult people in our lives.
Today we hear a portion of Joseph’s (one of the 12 sons of Israel) story. It’s difficult to read out of context, so you can catch the prequel in Genesis 37-41. Joseph’s brothers are jealous of him and sell him to a group of traveling Ishmaelites (remember Ishmael, Isaac’s brother?!) who then sell him to Pharoah in Egypt. Pharoah’s official recognizes the favor of God on Joseph and his abilities and promotes him out of slavery to be in charge of Pharoah’s affairs. In today’s story we read about the severe famine that brings Israel’s sons to Egypt in a desperate attempt to procure grain and their coming to an audience with their brother Joseph who was in charge of the distribution.
Imagine yourself as Joseph. Your brothers sold you into slavery when you were an innocent boy of 17. You were snatched from your family, your tribe, and your country of origin and enslaved in a foreign land with people whose language you don’t speak and whose culture you don’t know. You’re alone. You’re enslaved. Your brothers show up unexpectedly – the ones who betrayed and abandoned you. You never expected to see them again. Maybe you’ve resolved your grief and abandonment issues; maybe you haven’t. But now you have to face them. What feelings rise up in you once the initial shock begins to wane? Can you name those feelings? What would your response be to your betrayers, to those who stole your innocence, to those who wronged you so egregiously?
Even though it might seem like Joseph creates some manipulative hoops through which he requires his brothers to jump, he bases his requirements on a series of dreams he had previously as a young man and the visions God showed him. Ultimately Joseph extends deep, hard mercy to his brothers as we’ll see in the readings over the next few days.
I’m left with a hard question in my discipleship. What is my response toward people who have wronged me or with whom I feel offended?
Our psalm response sings, “Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.” As people who desire God’s mercy for ourselves, let us plead with the Lord for the graces we need to be more merciful toward others. Mercy is not a one-way street. Mercy flows from God through us toward others. Mercy, like love and grace, is a divine flow among Father, Son, and Spirit, pouring out like a waterfall and moving through the channels of our lives.
In our Gospel, Jesus summons and sends us to the lost sheep. Who are the lost sheep if not the ones most in need of mercy? You and I are numbered among that flock. So also, are the people who offend and mistreat us. As we extend mercy and seek reconciliation, we hear Jesus say to us, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” May we be Kingdom-seekers and Kingdom-builders today, extending the mercy that we only have because we have received it from God. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen!
-Elizabeth Wourms