The First Reading from the book of Genesis speaks of one of the most emotionally charged moments in the whole of the Old Testament. The sons of Jacob are in Egypt trying to get food for their famine-stricken family. They are having audience with the Pharaoh's chief minister, who, though they do not recognise him, is their brother, the brother they sold into slavery many years before. Joseph is telling them that they will not get any more food unless they bring their youngest brother with them the next time. He desperately wants to see Benjamin, with whom he alone shares the same mother, Rachel. Jacob, having lost his dearest son, does not want to lose another and is not ready to let Benjamin leave his sight. But then, Joseph, overcome with emotion, reveals himself to his astonished brothers. Far from blaming them for their terrible treatment of him, he sees in all that has happened God's way of coming to their aid in their time of desperate need. We, too, need to see that God's love may be speaking to us in even the most painful events in our lives. Joseph, of course, is also a prefiguring of his descendant, Jesus, through whose terrible suffering and death, we have been given eternal life.