Faith and Trust in Difficult Situations

Both readings today’s, Gen. 37: 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a and Mt 21: 33-43, 45-46, are about persons chosen by God to lead a major role in the salvation of a peoples who would otherwise have perished. In Gen. Joseph is sold by his brothers to Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver and put into slavery in Egypt, where he rises to a significant position by which he saves his family.  In the Gospel, Jesus shares a parable about the servants sent by their master to gather the harvest from those in charge of their master’s vineyard. The servants are killed and so the master sends his son.  “Surely, they will not kill my son.” They do! Jesus is not spared.  For thirty pieces of silver, Judas hands Jesus over to those plotting to kill him.  By his death, he saves all of humankind. 

The disastrous situation, that of Joseph and that of Jesus,  is manipulated  from within the inner circle.  Things can also go terribly wrong within our families, our communities, our parishes, our civic and ecclesial realities.  It is so  easy at those times  to become disgruntled, difficult to deal with, or downright nasty.  Like Joseph’s brothers,  we are capable of plotting evil to get rid of a person who irritates us, makes  our lives miserable,  causes us inconvenience, or makes us look bad, so to speak, while “our adversary” is lifted up as the favorite one.   Like Judas, we are also capable of exploiting a situation to make a profit and find ourselves involved in sinful, disastrous behaviors. 

Jesus teaches us another way, as does Joseph!  What choice will I make when disaster befalls me? Will I resort to violence, whether that be of  words or actions or will I look for and discover God at work, as did Joseph?  Do I remember, in difficult situations, that, no  matter how “wrong” things might be or become, God can and does bring good out of any situation?