Ordinary TimeWednesday of the Fourteenth Week

“When all the land of Egypt became hungry and the people cried to Pharaoh for food, Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians: “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.” (Genesis 41:55.)

Saint Ambrose of Milan offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“Indeed, anyone who was suffering from famine was sent to Joseph. Who are these people? Those of whom it is said, “They shall return at evening and shall suffer hunger like dogs.” Now there was famine, not in one locality alone but over the whole land, because there was no one to do good. Therefore the Lord Jesus, taking pity on the hungers of the world, opened his granaries and disclosed the hidden treasures of the heavenly mysteries, of wisdom and of knowledge, so that none would lack for nourishment. For Wisdom said, “Come, eat my bread,” and only the one who is filled with Christ can say, “The Lord feeds me, and I shall want nothing.” Therefore Christ opened his granaries and sold, while asking not monetary payments but the price of faith and the recompense of devotion. He sold, moreover, not to a few people in Judea but to all, so that he might be believed by all peoples.” (On Joseph, 7.)

Collect

O God,
Who in the abasement of Your Son
have raised up a fallen world,
fill Your faithful with holy joy,
for on those You have rescued
from slavery to sin
You bestow eternal gladness.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen