Friday 11 July 2025
St Benedict
Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord – Ps 36(37):3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40. Matthew 10:16-23.
Salvation is for all peoples
It is hard to think of a greater contrast than that between the two Readings today. In Genesis, we see a lovely story of family reunion. God promises Jacob that ‘Joseph’s hand will close your eyes’; Joseph buries his head in Jacob’s neck and cries; ‘neck’ is repeated, to emphasise a recognisable image, such as an infant nuzzling his father in love.
Jacob declares that now he is happy to die because he knows his son is alive. But the imagery in the Gospel could not be more disturbing: ‘brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child . . .’ But the cause of the division Christ speaks of is different from the sibling jealousy that divided Joseph from Jacob.
Devotion to the gospel of love will trounce even familial bonds, and the ancient patriarchy will respond to the threat with violence, but a powerful new individuality is born, as salvation is democratised.
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