DAY 17: Friday of Second Week of Lent - SPIRITUAL JOURNEY FROM LENT TOWARDS EASTER

Fr. Budge Orara gives his reflections on the two readings of Friday of the second week of Lent. The Book of Genesis (Gn 37: 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a) tells of the story of Joseph who was loved best by Israel of all his sons. This favoritism caused the other brothers to hate Joseph so much that most of them initially plotted to kill him. His brother Reuben realizes the seriousness on the part of his other brothers to kill Joseph, he suggests instead to just throw Joseph on a dry cistern (and retrieve Joseph later). When a caravan of Ishmaelite merchants pass by, they decide instead to sell Joseph to the slave dealer for twenty pieces of silver.

There is a parallelism in the story of Joseph with the reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 21: 33-43, 45-46) when Jesus on the Parable of the Vineyard, reminds the Pharisees and scribes of what their forefathers did to all the prophets sent by God. Most of them were beaten, stoned and killed by their ancestors. Even his own son whom the father expects that the tenants would respect was not spared. The Lord Jesus foretells before them that the Son of Man shall suffer the same fate from that generation. When Jesus asks them what do they expect the owner of the vineyard will do to those tenants, they retorts that the owner will surely put to death those bad tenants and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times. Realizing that the Lord has directed the parable to them, the Pharisees and scribes boil in anger that they attempt to arrest Him. However, they feared the crowds that consider Jesus as a Prophet.