COLLECT: “GRANT, WE PRAY, ALMIGHTY GOD, THAT, PURIFYING US BY THE SACRED PRACTICE OF PENANCE, YOU MAY LEAD US IN SINCERITY OF HEART TO ATTAIN THE HOLY THINGS TO COME. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Gen 37: 3-4,12-13a,17b-28; Ps 104:16-21 and Mt 21:33-43,45-46.
We reflect today on two passages; Gen 37:3-28, which tells us how Joseph, the son of Jacob (Israel) was sold as a slave by his envious and jealous brothers for 20 pieces of silver, and Mt 21:33-46, where in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, Jesus gives a parallel fate for himself at the hands of the chief priests and elders of the Jews.
The Dagaaba have some two adages that, (1) “Ka fo dieo ba yini fo, yenge kong bang nye fo” (Lit. “If your house does not expose you, you will not be exposed outside”). (2) “Dankyini mang weri ka nanga nye kpe” (Lit. “It is when there is a crack on the wall that a scorpion can enter into it”). There is also an English proverb that says, “Your best friend (maybe your close relative as well) is your killer”. All these proverbs teach us a lesson on Betrayal.
There are lots of uncountable reasons why people betray others. Very often the betrayal comes from closest relatives, friends, co-workers and associates. We betray others because of money, property, material things or because of power, authority, position, fame and honour, or even out of envy and jealousy. Jesus and Joseph were betrayed because of envy and jealousy. After all, the chief priests and elders knew Jesus as a son of Joseph and Mary but here he is claiming to be the Son of God, and arrogating divine powers upon himself. The chief priests and elders cannot ‘stomach’ or tolerate this. For his part, Joseph the son of Jacob is being loved best of his brothers. He also has great talents and qualities as he can dream and interpret dreams. His brothers are envious and therefore, like the chief priests and elders, they scheme to eliminate him. When the opportune time comes, they sell him for 20 pieces of silver.
In our generation, our worst enemies may not be fire outbreaks, ffloods earthquakes, hurricanes, wild animals, famine, diseases and illnesses, but our fellow human beings, sometimes those we live and associate with. Sometimes more pain or hurt is caused to us from those we live and work with than from these other inanimate enemies of human beings listed above.
Our contemporary generation continues to betray, expose and kill her great dreamers, leaders and developers every day out of anger, envy and jealousy. People continue to pull others down (PHD), kill their great talents and eventually destroy them with the evil aim that, ‘since I do not have such great talents and gifts, he/she should not also have them’.
One area we cause hurt and pain to people is back-biting, which is also termed as ‘striping of someone naked’. Both Jesus and Joseph were stripped of their clothes. When we backbite we strip people of their God-given nature which, so to speak, is what God has clothed the person with. We pray for ourselves in this season of Lent to come out of our sins of betrayal, anger, back-biting, envy and jealousy. *LORD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL.
As we (Ghanaians) celebrate our 69th Independence Day, let us repent for those moments we broke and perverted the commandments of God, as well as the laws, customs and traditions of the Nation. We pray to be fully liberated, independent and freed from dependency, foreign borrowing, unemployment, illiteracy and ignorance, political, as well as foreign impositions, indiscriminate love for money/earthly possessions, cheating, stealing and robbing, bribery and corruption, serial killing, discrimination, laziness, pride and arrogance, illegal mining (Galamsey), etc. etc. May God continue to bless “OUR HOMELAND GHANA. Stay blessed and HAPPY 67TH INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION*.
Today is Friday in Lent. It is a day of fasting and abstinence. Also present or drop what you have not spent today (“ON MEAT AND ALCOHOL”) in the Lenten Box for the poor and the needy. Remember to go the Way of the Cross, prayerfully meditating on the 14 Stations of it.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, FRIDAY, ON THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN, THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR, THE CROWNING WITH THORNS, THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS AND THE CRUCIFIXION’ (WE PRAY FOR SORROW FOR SIN, PURITY, COURAGE, PATIENCE, AND PERSEVERANCE) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “HAVING RECEIVED THIS PLEDGE OF ETERNAL SALVATION, WE PRAY, O LORD, THAT WE MAY SET OUR COURSE SO WELL AS TO ATTAIN THE REDEMPTION YOU PROMISE. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.
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