Our Venerable Father and Confessor James, Bishop of Catania (813-20)
Great Fast Day 38. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 58:1-11
Presanctified – Genesis 43:26-31; 45:1-16; Proverbs 21:23-22:4
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Inside of each of us is a desire to fight back against evil and injustice. This is something that we certainly celebrate as an noble trait. Our movies are full of stories that follow this type of pattern: a person or group is wronged and a hero rises up to vindicate the oppressed and suffering. We love to watch this story over and over again. The story of Joseph follows a similar pattern, but it has an unexpected ending.
The Righteous Joseph the Patriarch gives us a beautiful Christ like example in the Old Testament on faith and long-suffering. Joseph suffers a terrible injustice and is rejected by those closest to him. His own brothers overcome with jealousy are motivated to kill him, but by the grace of God they settle on selling him to a slave trader. As a slave he spends years in service and even prison. One can only imagine the terrible suffering he endured as a result of his brothers hatred. It would have been easy for him to hold a terrible grudge against his family. Had he allowed hatred and a grudge to fester in his heart Joseph would have certainly used this encounter with his brothers as an opportunity to return the pain he had suffered. As a result he would have destroyed any opportunity for reconciliation, furthered pain and suffering and increased the reign of sin. Through his long-suffering and faith Joseph instead put his trust in the Lord and the Lord rewarded him with the pure and full understanding that this evil was taken by God and turned into salvation for his family and the surrounding people: ‘We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose’ (Romans 8:28).