My Lord & My God

When someone misjudges you, yet, not only do you receive it with peace, but also with joy, having the strength of character necessary to forgive and step on your ego, win this person over through friendship and mercy, you have become Christ to them. If not, you might be like me and many others, who often get entangled in self offended love, bitterness towards injustice, resentment, and a desire for justification towards the pain that others have caused.  There are striking typological contrasts between Jesus and the patriarch Joseph, son of Jacob, who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers. When the eleven brothers find that Joseph has had a redemption story and has become second only to Pharaoh, they fall into fear of justice from Joseph, who does not judge, condemn, or control them but brings his brothers into repentance and restores them to communion through mercy, though they are guilty.

When the eleven brothers find that Joseph has had a redemption story and has become second only to Pharaoh, they fall into fear of justice from Joseph, who does not judge, condemn, or control them but brings his brothers into repentance and restores them to communion through mercy, though they are guilty. Joseph does not make himself equal to God in his judgments when he encounters the fear of his brothers, but he understands himself as an ambassador of God, someone sent by him, and thus he responds to them: “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” (Gen 50:19-20). When Jesus encounters the disciples, after his resurrection, in the upper room, it says that they hid from “fear of the Jews.” Perhaps part of their fear was encountering Jesus for the first time after each of them had betrayed him. They recognized Jesus by the very wounds they inflicted on him, but when they “saw” that their encounter with his wounds, with their sins, did not bring about condemnation and fear but “peace,” they were “glad.” Like the brothers of Joseph and the Apostles, we shut ourselves into our own hurt and fears when we sin, and we betray our Lord day after day. But Jesus enters that darkness, and though he holds absolute authority to judge, he says “peace be with you,” as the “Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

Jesus brings peace through his wounds, breathes the Spirit on those who betrayed him so that they may “have life” through his mercy, and sends them to forgive sins. So, let us no longer live under the burden of our fears. Let us accept that we are sent by him, trusting in his authority to accomplish and provide for our needs. Let us be free to communicate mercy and proclaim in the face of our fears, our wounds, and our lack, with St. Thomas:  “My Lord and my God.”