eyes. Then he commanded his servants to fill their sacks with wheat, and put each man’s money[1] secretly in his sack, and give them, besides, provisions for their journey. This being done, they loaded their asses with the corn, and returned home.
They related to their father all that had happened, and, on opening their sacks, every man found his money tied in the mouth of his sack. Seeing this, they were troubled and afraid[2]. And Jacob said to them: “You have made me childless. Joseph is not living, Simeon is kept in bonds, and Benjamin ye will take away. My son shall not go down with you, for, if any evil befall him, you will bring my grey hairs in sorrow to the grave.”
COMMENTARY.
Admonishing sinners. Joseph treated his brethren severely, not out of revenge, but out of love. He wished to bring them to self-examination, repentance and amendment of life. To admonish sinners, so as to convert them and lead them to see their sins and repent of them, is a duty of brotherly love and one of the spiritual works of mercy. St. James says (5, 20): “He who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.”
The object of sufferings. God, in His love, inflicts temporal sufferings on sinners, so that they may thereby be saved from the eternal sufferings of hell. These sufferings, such as sicknesses, misfortunes &c., ought to have the effect of turning the sinner’s thoughts to God, death, judgment and eternity, of teaching him to see the vanity of earthly things, and of leading him to repent of his sins, do penance, and care for the things of his soul. Such troubles are called visitations, for it is in this way that God visits His wandering children, and seeks to bring them back to the right way. “For, whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth” (Hebr. 12, 6). Millions of the blessed would not now be in heaven, if God had not visited them with tribulations in this world.
The strictness of parents. Parents must punish their children sometimes, so as to keep them from evil. They do so, and must do so, out of love. Parents who indulge their children in everything have no true love for them, because they spoil them. Happy the child,
