Monday, March 8, 2010

Daily Lenten Meditation for March 8, 2010

www.HopeandHelpCenter.org

Daily Lenten Meditation
By Christine White

Genesis 44:18-34
Then Judah stepped up to Joseph and said, 'O my lord, let your servant please speak a word in my lord's ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his servants, saying, "Have you a father or a brother?" And we said to my lord, "We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead; he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him." Then you said to your servants, "Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him." We said to my lord, "The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die." Then you said to your servants, "Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more." When we went back to your servant my father we told him the words of my lord. And when our father said, "Go again, buy us a little food", we said, "We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother goes with us, will we go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us." Then your servant my father said to us, "You know that my wife bore me two sons; one left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces; and I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm comes to him, you will bring down my grey hairs in sorrow to Sheol." Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy's life, when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring down the grey hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became surety for the boy to my father, saying, "If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame in the sight of my father all my life." Now therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord in place of the boy; and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father.' NRSV
On July 16, 1942, the French police rounded up the Jews of Paris, including thousands of children despite the Nazi orders to gather only those aged 16 and older, holding them briefly in Paris before transporting them to Drancy, a French concentration camp. Ultimately, they were transported to Auschwitz and exterminated. From the end of World War II through the decades that followed, French leadership blamed Hitler's Third Reich for their own reprehensible moral choice, thus fracturing their relationship with many members of the family of nations of which they were a part.
As I reread the Genesis pericope about the Sons of Jacob, I was reminded of a striking parallel with this tragic French choice and how its consequences unfolded over time, retold by Tatiana de Rosnayin her story about this profound historical event, Sarah's Key. How do they connect?
Joseph was one of twelve sons of Jacob, a father whose other sons came to believe that he loved Joseph more because Jacob made him a special robe. Can you imagine the hard feelings that their sibling rivalry led to? Add in the rest of the story: Joseph spoke to his brothers the truth which he saw in a dream, a dream that had his brothers bowing down to him. The rest of that story is that his brothers collectively built their hatred and one day when Joseph went out to the field to check on his brothers, they - like the French - made a bad moral decision. They had planned to kill him, but instead let Judah talk them into selling Joseph into slavery.
Fast forward many years to a famine in Israel so severe that Jacob sends his ten oldest sons to buy grain in Egypt. They appear, you'll recall, before the governor responsible for selling grain to all people, a man who overcame his early misfortune and rose to prominence in Egypt as an interpreter of dreams for the Pharaoh. Joseph whom they do not recognize but who recognizes them, tests his brothers by accusing them of being spies and tells them that they must return home bringing back their youngest brother, Benjamin (Jacob's new favorite son), while their brother, Simeon, is held in prison. With their father's agreement, Benjamin makes the second trip with his brothers. They are able to purchase grain, obtain Simeon's release and begin the journey home. But, having hidden a silver cup in Benjamin's bag, Joseph sends his steward to bring Benjamin back as a thief. In a moral reversal, Judah makes his passionate and persuasive offer to substitute himself to atone for Benjamin's alleged crime. In risking his own life on his brother's behalf, Judah redeemed himself. Ultimately, his transformation, demonstrating to his entire family his willingness to sacrifice himself, led to reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. The unwritten first step in his transformation was admitting his personal guilt in the wrong done to Joseph.
For decades, the people of France assessed the blame for Vel' d'Hiv, the name given to the event of Jewish cleansing, to the Germans. Finally, the French acknowledged that the moral atrocity was their responsibility, the result of French hatred and prejudices. Then, as in the Biblical story, healing began, healing not only for surviving Jews but also for the French people who had long borne the weight of the events of 1942.
The lesson for us is profound. When we deny our personal responsibility for the events of our lives, we place an invisible barrier between ourselves and God. But, that isn't the end of the story. God doesn't condemn us for constructing the barrier. God knows that only we can remove the barrier, patiently waiting for us to do so, forgiving us every step of the way.



www.MCCGSL.org


communications@mccgsl.org

No comments: