Genesis 40:1-23 day 29.3.15

Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt gave offense to their lord the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody, in the house of the chief steward, in the same prison house where Joseph was confined. The chief steward assigned Joseph to them, and he attended them. When they had been in custody for some time, both of them--the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison--dreamed in the same night, each his own dream and each dream with its own meaning. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were distraught. He asked Pharaoh's courtiers, who were with him in custody in his master's house, saying, "Why do you appear downcast today?" And they said to him, 'We had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them." So Joseph said to them, "Surely God can interpret! Tell me [your dreams]." Then the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph. He said to him, "In my dream, there was a vine in front of me. On the vine were three branches. It had barely budded, when out came its blossoms and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand." Joseph said to him, "This is its interpretation: The three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will pardon you and restore you to your post; you will place Pharaoh's cup in his hand, as was your custom formerly when you were his cupbearer. But think of me when all is well with you again, and do me the kindness of mentioning me to Pharaoh, so as to free me from this place. For in truth, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews; nor have I done anything here that they should have put me in the dungeon." When the chief baker saw how favorably he had interpreted, he said to Joseph, "In my dream, similarly, there were three openwork baskets on my head. In the uppermost basket were all kinds of food for Pharaoh that a baker prepares; and the birds were eating it out of the basket above my head." Joseph answered, "This is its interpretation: The three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale' you upon a pole; and the birds will pick off your flesh." On the third day--his birthday--Pharaoh made a banquet for officials, and he singled out his chief cupbearer and his chief baker among his officials. He restored the chief cupbearer to his cupbearing, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand; but the chief baker he paled-just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not think of Joseph; he forgot him.

We place our trust in God.

 Today we are faced with a choice between God and a rival master. The rival master can be anyone or anything. The example Jesus gives is mammon, a Semitic word for money or riches. Our ultimate loyalty should be to God, and this is impossible if we serve money in the way that a slave serves his master. It is this service of money, not the possession of it, that is wrong. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian sentenced to death for opposing the Nazis, put the choice well: “Our hearts have room for only one all-embracing devotion, and we can only cleave to one Lord.” In the rest of today's Gospel, the theme is worry and anxiety: “have no anxiety about anything.” God gave us life and our body, so he will give us the lesser gifts of food and clothing, and therefore anxiety is unnecessary. We are all prone to worry, but it robs us of the peace of Christ. The basis of our anxiety is that we lack faith. Jesus' teaching here gives us several reasons why we should not worry: it is to miss the point of life, which is far more important than things such as food, drink and clothing; it makes little sense, for if God feeds the birds, surely he will not let us go hungry; and it is a waste of time because it will never lengthen our lives. Indeed, worry can make us ill, shortening our lives. There are enough problems today without worrying about tomorrow! The answer to worry is to “seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness.” We need to change our priorities and seek to uphold God's standards. Through God's grace we can grow in our understanding of his love and become more conscious that he cares for us.

(excerpt: catholic-bible-school.org)

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

 Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

 Where there is injury, pardon; 

Where there is doubt, faith;

 Where there is despair, hope;

 Where there is darkness, light;

 Where there is sadness, joy.

 O Divine Master, grant that I may not seek

 So much to be consoled as to console; 

To be understood as to understand; 

To be loved as to love.

 For it is in giving that we receive; 

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

 And it is in dying that we are born

 To eternal life. 

Amen. 

Let us Love our Enemies.

 W e are called to the holiness of God. That is the extraordinary claim made in both the First Reading and Gospel this Sunday. Yet how is possible that we can be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect? Jesus explains that we must be imitators of God as His beloved children.
 As God does, we must love without limit, with a love that does not distinguish between friend and foe, overcoming evil with good. Jesus Himself, in His Passion and death, gave us the perfect example of the love that we are called to. He offered no resistance to the evil, even though He could have commanded twelve legions of angels to fight alongside Him. He offered His face to be struck and spit upon. He allowed His garments to be stripped from Him. He marched as His enemies compelled Him to the Place of the Skull. On the cross He prayed for those who persecuted Him.
In all this He showed Himself to be the perfect Son of God. By His grace, and through our imitation of Him, He promises that we too can become children of our heavenly Father. God does not deal with us as we deserve, as we sing in this week’s Psalm. He loves us with a Father’s love. He saves us from ruin. He forgives our transgressions. He loved us even when we had made ourselves His enemies through our sinfulness. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We have been bought with the price of the blood of God’s only Son. We belong to Christ now, as St. Paul says in this week’s Epistle. By our baptism, we have we have been made temples of His Holy Spirit. And we have been saved to share in His holiness and perfection. So let us glorify Him by our lives lived in His service, loving as He loves. Dr. S. Hahn.
(excerpt: salvationhistory.com)

The Chair Of St Peter

 The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter celebrates the Papacy and St. Peter as the first bishop of Rome. Peter was living and working in Capernaum as a fisherman when Jesus called him to be one of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus bestowed to Peter a special place among the Apostles. He was one of the three who were with Christ on special occasions, such as the Transfiguration of Christ and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was the only Apostle to whom Christ appeared on the first day after the Resurrection. Peter, in turn, often spoke on behalf of the Apostles. When Jesus asked the Apostles: “Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?” he replied: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus said: "Blessed are you Simon, because flesh and blood have not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you: that you are Peter (Cephas, a rock) and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: whatsoever you shall loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven".(Mt 16:13- 20). In saying this Jesus made St. Peter the head of the entire community of believers and placed in his hands the spiritual guidance of the faithful. However, St. Peter was not without faults. He was rash and was often reproached by Christ. He fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane instead of praying as Jesus had asked him to do. He also denied knowing Jesus three times after Christ’s arrest. But he was always quick to repent. Peter delivered the first public sermon after the Pentecost and won a large number of converts. He also performed many miracles and defended the freedom of the Apostles to preach the Gospels. He preached in Jerusalem, Judaea, and as far north as Syria. Peter was arrested in Jerusalem under Herod Agrippa I, but he miraculously escaped execution. He left Jerusalem and eventually went to Rome, where he preached during the last portion of his life. He was crucified there, upside down, as he had desired to suffer, saying that he did not deserve to die as Christ had died. His remains now rest beneath the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

 (excerpt: catholicnewsagency.com)

Let us keep His law with our hearts.

 T o call someone a hypocrite or to tell someone that they are a Pharisee is pretty much the same thing. Both symbolize what is sinister and false. Yet the Pharisees followed the law and did what they were supposed to do. They paid their debts, observed their religious rituals, and were leaders in their communities. Yet we hear Jesus saying: “Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”
Evidently, being a strict follower of the rules isn’t good enough. Jesus expects us to be better than just followers of rules. In Jesus’ mind righteousness is not a question of what we must do to observe the law. It is a question of how much more we can do, how much more we want to do. It is what’s in our hearts and souls that matters. Just because we appear to be good on the outside doesn’t necessarily mean that we are good on the inside. We may never commit adultery, but our hearts can be filled with lust. We may never be convicted of theft, but we can rob another person of their value in the eyes of others.
It is genuine love that matters, not just words or appearances. True Christians do not ask whether something is legal or illegal and then stop there. They love God, they love Jesus, and they love their brothers and sisters. Their only concern is how they can serve and love them more and more. They want to work with Jesus and his brothers and sisters to build the Kingdom of God. No matter how much they do, they know they can still love more. Just doing the minimum is not enough. What Jesus taught and what He showed us is that love knows no boundaries.
(excerpt: catholicweb.com)

You are the salt of the earth

Oh, she is the salt of the earth, we often say when we are referring to a person who is straightforward, honest and without guile. In the words of another saying, 'what you see is what you get'. In today's reading, Jesus' description of his disciples as 'the salt of the earth' would have struck a chord and meant something very specific to his listeners. In Jesus' day salt was a valuable commodity. In order to preserve food from decay in the heat, salt was applied as a preservative. It also served to enhance the flavor of the food. The ancient tradition of salting the sacrificial offerings (Ezek.43:24) denoted a purifying function; it was perhaps for this reason that newborn babies were rubbed with salt to denote purification of the addition to God's people and as a reminder of the covenant.
 Those who heard Jesus speak would have understood the meaning and tradition behind the idea of being 'salt of the earth'. In the same way as salt prevents decay and corruption, so the witness of Christians, who live a life in the power of the Holy Spirit, protects the world and society from decay and corruption. It also adds much-needed flavour to society. Too much salt in our food can make us thirsty. St Augustine once wrote, 'O Heavenly Father, you have put salt in our mouths that we may thirst for you.' The work of the Holy Spirit is to create within us a thirst for the things of God: for union with God, for communion with him and for grace to live a life which is holy and pleasing to him.
Jesus also calls us to be 'the light of the world' . In this way we are to be like our Master, for in John 8:12, Jesus describes himself as 'the light of the world'. We are to be countercultural, signs of contradiction, heralds of the gospel of life in a world which, in so many respects, has lost its way. St. Joseph the Worker Parish

 (excerpt catholic-bible-school)