March 22 / Second Friday of Lent
When he summoned famine against the land, and broke every staff of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. -Ps 105:16-17
A non-profit group I work with refers often to its founder, a pioneering businesswoman and formidable preservationist, whose never-say-die mentality, scrappy determination and tireless enthusiasm guide us 100 years on. (We do not, however, seek to emulate her impecuniousness, which prompted a contemporary to observe, “Miss Sue was always just a step ahead of the sheriff.”) For many groups — a family, a company, a people — their foundation history supplies seminal values and lasting lessons. A sprawling family reveres the perseverance and hard work of its immigrant ancestors; a company that started in a garage works hard to sustain values of simplicity and collaboration even as it matures into a sophisticated enterprise. Today’s psalm verses, excerpted from a longer recital of God’s wondrous deeds that constitute the foundation history of Israel, focus on the story of Joseph. Here, a single theme resounds: God intervenes in the course of human events to save his people. Most of us remember the Joseph story from Sunday school: the jealous brothers who sell the favorite son into slavery; Joseph’s success in Egypt, the false accusations by Potiphar’s spurned wife and his imprisonment; his subsequent rise to head of the Pharaoh’s household due to his dream interpretations. Rejection and betrayal, unjust incarceration, reversals of fortune — Joseph’s is hardly a linear history. Nor is ours. But even when events are messy and motives are questionable and hardships abound — all of which signify in our lives as they do in the story of Joseph — we must trust that God’s unknowable power is at work. As Joseph himself said to his brothers, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”
Lord God, whose mystery will always be beyond human reach, may I sense your hand at work in my life even when it seems most absent.Amen.
For today’s readings, click here.
