January 18: Daily Readings & Quote

St. Jaime Hilario

The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown. surpassing even the happiest days of your life. 

-St. Jaime Hilario

Today's readings are:

Genesis 43-46

Mark 7:1-23

1

¹ Now the famine in the land grew more severe.

2

So when they had used up all the rations they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, "Go back and procure us a little more food."

3

But Judah replied: "The man strictly warned us, 'You shall not appear in my presence unless your brother is with you.'

4

If you are willing to let our brother go with us, we will go down to procure food for you.

5

But if you are not willing, we will not go down, because the man told us, 'You shall not appear in my presence unless your brother is with you.'"

6

Israel demanded, "Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man that you had another brother?"

7

They answered: "The man kept asking about ourselves and our family: 'Is your father still living? Do you have another brother?' We had to answer his questions. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down here'?"

8

Then Judah urged his father Israel: "Let the boy go with me, that we may be off and on our way if you and we and our children are to keep from starving to death.

9

I myself will stand surety for him. You can hold me responsible for him. If I fail to bring him back, to set him in your presence, you can hold it against me forever.

10

Had we not dilly-dallied, we could have been there and back twice by now!"

11

Their father Israel then told them: "If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the land's best products in your baggage and take them down to the man as gifts: some balm and honey, gum and resin, and pistachios and almonds.

12

Also take extra money along, for you must return the amount that was put back in the mouths of your bags; it may have been a mistake.

13

Take your brother, too, and be off on your way back to the man.

14

May God Almighty dispose the man to be merciful toward you, so that he may let your other brother go, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to suffer bereavement, I shall suffer it."

15

So the men got the gifts, took double the amount of money with them, and, accompanied by Benjamin, were off on their way down to Egypt to present themselves to Joseph.

16

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he told his head steward, "Take these men into the house, and have an animal slaughtered and prepared, for they are to dine with me at noon."

17

Doing as Joseph had ordered, the steward conducted the men to Joseph's house.

18

But on being led to his house, they became apprehensive. "It must be," they thought, "on account of the money put back in our bags the first time, that we are taken inside; they want to use it as a pretext to attack us and take our donkeys and seize us as slaves."

19

So they went up to Joseph's head steward and talked to him at the entrance of the house.

20

"If you please, sir," they said, "we came down here once before to procure food.

21

But when we arrived at a night's encampment and opened our bags, there was each man's money in the mouth of his bag--our money in the full amount! We have now brought it back.

22

We have brought other money to procure food with. We do not know who put the first money in our bags."

23

"Be at ease," he replied; "you have no need to fear. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasures in your bags for you. As for your money, I received it." With that, he led Simeon out to them.

24

The steward then brought the men inside Joseph's house. He gave them water to bathe their feet, and got fodder for their donkeys.

25

Then they set out their gifts to await Joseph's arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to dine there.

26

When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, while they bowed down before him to the ground.

27

After inquiring how they were, he asked them, "And how is your aged father, of whom you spoke? Is he still in good health?"

28

"Your servant our father is thriving and still in good health," they said, as they bowed respectfully.

29

When Joseph's eye fell on his full brother Benjamin, he asked, "Is this your youngest brother, of whom you told me?" Then he said to him, "May God be gracious to you, my boy!"

30

With that, Joseph had to hurry out, for he was so overcome with affection for his brother that he was on the verge of tears. He went into a private room and wept there.

31

After washing his face, he reappeared and, now in control of himself, gave the order, "Serve the meal."

32

² It was served separately to him, to the brothers, and to the Egyptians who partook of his board. (Egyptians may not eat with Hebrews; that is abhorrent to them.)

33

When they were seated by his directions according to their age, from the oldest to the youngest, they looked at one another in amazement;

34

³ and as portions were brought to them from Joseph's table, Benjamin's portion was five times as large as anyone else's. So they drank freely and made merry with him.

1

¹ Then Joseph gave his head steward these instructions: "Fill the men's bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his bag.

2

In the mouth of the youngest one's bag put also my silver goblet, together with the money for his rations." The steward carried out Joseph's instructions.

3

At daybreak the men and their donkeys were sent off.

4

They had not gone far out of the city when Joseph said to his head steward: "Go at once after the men! When you overtake them, say to them, 'Why did you repay good with evil? Why did you steal the silver goblet from me?

5

² It is the very one from which my master drinks and which he uses for divination. What you have done is wrong.'"

6

When the steward overtook them and repeated these words to them,

7

they remonstrated with him: "How can my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!

8

We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money that we found in the mouths of our bags. Why, then, would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?

9

If any of your servants is found to have the goblet, he shall die, and as for the rest of us, we shall become my lord's slaves."

10

But he replied, "Even though it ought to be as you propose, only the one who is found to have it shall become my slave, and the rest of you shall be exonerated."

11

Then each of them eagerly lowered his bag to the ground and opened it;

12

and when a search was made, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest, the goblet turned up in Benjamin's bag.

13

At this, they tore their clothes. Then, when each man had reloaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

14

As Judah and his brothers reentered Joseph's house, he was still there; so they flung themselves on the ground before him.

15

"How could you do such a thing?" Joseph asked them. "You should have known that such a man as I could discover by divination what happened."

16

³ Judah replied: "What can we say to my lord? How can we plead or how try to prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. Here we are, then, the slaves of my lord--the rest of us no less than the one in whose possession the goblet was found."

17

"Far be it from me to act thus!" said Joseph. "Only the one in whose possession the goblet was found shall become my slave; the rest of you may go back safe and sound to your father."

18

Judah then stepped up to him and said: "I beg you, my lord, let your servant speak earnestly to my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are the equal of Pharaoh.

19

⁴ My lord asked your servants, 'Have you a father, or another brother?'

20

So we said to my lord, 'We have an aged father, and a young brother, the child of his old age. This one's full brother is dead, and since he is the only one by that mother who is left, his father dotes on him.'

21

Then you told your servants, 'Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.'

22

We replied to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father; his father would die if he were to leave him.'

23

But you told your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you shall not come into my presence again.'

24

When we returned to your servant our father, we reported to him the words of my lord.

25

"Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family.

26

So we reminded him, 'We cannot go down there; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go, for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.'

27

Then your servant our father said to us, 'As you know, my wife bore me two sons.

28

One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts; I have not seen him since.

29

If you now take this one away from me too, and some disaster befalls him, you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.'

30

"If then the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, whose very life is bound up with his, he will die as soon as he sees that the boy is missing;

31

and your servants will thus send the white head of our father down to the nether world in grief.

32

Besides, I, your servant, got the boy from his father by going surety for him, saying, 'If I fail to bring him back to you, father, you can hold it against me forever.'

33

Let me, your servant, therefore, remain in place of the boy as the slave of my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

34

How could I go back to my father if the boy were not with me? I could not bear to see the anguish that would overcome my father."

1

Joseph could no longer control himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, "Have everyone withdraw from me!" Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers.

2

But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh's palace.

3

"I am Joseph," he said to his brothers. "Is my father still in good health?" But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him.

4

"Come closer to me," he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: "I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.

5

But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.

6

For two years now the famine has been in the land, and for five more years tillage will yield no harvest.

7

God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.

8

¹ So it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made of me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

9

² "Hurry back, then, to my father and tell him: 'Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come to me without delay.

10

³ You will settle in the region of Goshen, where you will be near me--you and your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything that you own.

11

Since five years of famine still lie ahead, I will provide for you there, so that you and your family and all that are yours may not suffer want.'

12

Surely, you can see for yourselves, and Benjamin can see for himself, that it is I, Joseph, who am speaking to you.

13

Tell my father all about my high position in Egypt and what you have seen. But hurry and bring my father down here."

14

Thereupon he flung himself on the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept in his arms.

15

Joseph then kissed all his brothers, crying over each of them; and only then were his brothers able to talk with him.

16

When the news reached Pharaoh's palace that Joseph's brothers had come, Pharaoh and his courtiers were pleased.

17

So Pharaoh told Joseph: "Say to your brothers: 'This is what you shall do: Load up your animals and go without delay to the land of Canaan.

18

There get your father and your families, and then come back here to me; I will assign you the best land in Egypt, where you will live off the fat of the land.'

19

Instruct them further: 'Do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives and to transport your father on your way back here.

20

Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best in the whole land of Egypt shall be yours.'"

21

The sons of Israel acted accordingly. Joseph gave them the wagons, as Pharaoh had ordered, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey.

22

He also gave to each of them fresh clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of garments.

23

Moreover, what he sent to his father was ten jackasses loaded with the finest products of Egypt and ten jennies loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey.

24

As he sent his brothers on their way, he told them, "Let there be no recriminations on the way."

25

So they left Egypt and made their way to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

26

When they told him, "Joseph is still alive--in fact, it is he who is ruler of all the land of Egypt," he was dumbfounded; he could not believe them.

27

But when they recounted to him all that Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent for his transport, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

28

"It is enough," said Israel. "My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die."

1

Israel set out with all that was his. When he arrived at Beer-sheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

2

There God, speaking to Israel in a vision by night, called, "Jacob! Jacob!" "Here I am," he answered.

3

¹ Then he said: "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation.

4

Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes."

5

So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel put their father and their wives and children on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent for his transport.

6

They took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Thus Jacob and all his descendants migrated to Egypt.

7

His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters--all his descendants--he took with him to Egypt.

8

These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who migrated to Egypt. Reuben, Jacob's first-born,

9

² and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

10

The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, son of a Canaanite woman.

11

The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12

The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah--but Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

13

The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

14

The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

15

These were the sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, along with his daughter Dinah--thirty-three persons in all, male and female.

16

The sons of Gad: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arod, and Areli.

17

The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, with their sister Serah; and the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

18

These were the descendants of Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah; these she bore to Jacob--sixteen persons in all.

19

The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

20

In the land of Egypt Joseph became the father of Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis, bore to him.

21

The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ahiram, Shupham, Hupham, and Ard.

22

These were the sons whom Rachel bore to Jacob--fourteen persons in all.

23

The sons of Dan: Hushim.

24

The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

25

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel; these she bore to Jacob--seven persons in all.

26

Jacob's people who migrated to Egypt--his direct descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob's sons--numbered sixty-six persons in all.

27

³ Together with Joseph's sons who were born to him in Egypt--two persons--all the people comprising Jacob's family who had come to Egypt amounted to seventy persons in all.

28

Israel had sent Judah ahead to Joseph, so that he might meet him in Goshen. On his arrival in the region of Goshen,

29

Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and rode to meet his father Israel in Goshen. As soon as he saw him, he flung himself on his neck and wept a long time in his arms.

30

And Israel said to Joseph, "At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive."

31

Joseph then said to his brothers and his father's household: "I will go and inform Pharaoh, telling him: 'My brothers and my father's household, whose home is in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

32

The men are shepherds, having long been keepers of livestock; and they have brought with them their flocks and herds, as well as everything else they own.'

33

So when Pharaoh summons you and asks what your occupation is,

34

you must answer, 'We your servants, like our ancestors, have been keepers of livestock from the beginning until now,' in order that you may stay in the region of Goshen, since all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians."

1

¹ Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,

2

they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

3

(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, ² keeping the tradition of the elders.

4

And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).)

5

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders ³ but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

6

He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

7

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.'

8

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

9

He went on to say, "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!

10

For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.'

11

Yet you say, 'If a person says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is qorban"' ⁴ (meaning, dedicated to God),

12

you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.

13

You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things."

14

He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.

15

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."

16

) ⁵

17

⁶ When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.

18

He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,

19

⁷ since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

20

"But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.

21

From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,

22

adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

23

All these evils come from within and they defile."