Sent forth with a Mission

WORD 2day - Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 13, 2023: Genesis 44:18-21,23-29,45:1-5; Matthew 10:7-15

The theme of yesterday continues today - being sent, and sent to go forth on a mission! Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob (or Israel) is considered the closest 'prefigurement' of Jesus in the Old Testament. Notice in his life the situations that change - from a predilected son to a slave, from a slave to a prisoner, but from a prisoner to the highest of the officials and there, established as the one who would save his own kith and kin from famine! 

Is it not the same with Jesus, as St. Paul describes in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 2): from Son of God to a human being and a slave; from a slave to death and that on the Cross; but from the Cross raised to be the highest of all names to which every one on earth and heaven shall bend their knees; and there, established as Lord he saved us his brothers and sisters and reconciles us to God our Father and Mother.

As Joseph notes in the last verse of the first reading today, "it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you", it was with a mission that Jesus was sent to us and it is with a mission that Jesus sends us today - he says to each of us: "As the father sent me, so I send you"(Jn 20:21). Each of us is sent! 

The mission as we said yesterday, we have to discover in our personal lives and when we do discover we will understand that it is at one and the same time, a privilege and a responsibility, an honour and a challenge. But if we do not manage to discover it, we would have wasted our life, its significance and its purpose!