February 23, Epiphany 7C (Genesis 45:3–11, 15)
Joseph’s brothers witness love in action, in both his personal forgiveness and his prudent national planning.
During the summer before my junior year in high school, my father required major surgery. He had ignored the symptoms of an illness for a long time, so there was not high confidence that this procedure would save his life. Nevertheless, he wanted to do everything that he could to position himself for a good outcome.
On the evening before his surgery, I arrived at the hospital to spend time with him and my mother, and from down the hallway I could hear laughter coming from his room. I recognized the voices of my parents, but there was another voice mingled with theirs. When I entered the room, I was shocked to see my older brother, Gary. For more than five years my brother and my father had not spoken a word to each other. But my father’s illness brought them back together, and I beheld the shocking sight of Gary standing at my father’s bedside, reconciliation underway in its infant stages, the two of them laughing as they had laughed in the past.
“I am your brother, Joseph.” In this Sunday’s story from Genesis, these few words find their way through years of separation and estrangement and touch the hearts of Joseph’s brothers. Maybe my brother spoke similar words when he first saw my father after their long separation. I am your son, Gary.
