'Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.'
Jacob Blessing the Children of Joseph , Rembrandt, 1656 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph (Exodus 1:8 RSV-CE). I was really struck by these words at the beginning of the first reading in today's Mass. Last week we were listening to parts of the moving story of how Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, was later reunited with them and their father Jacob when famine brought them to Egypt where, unknown to them, he had become governor. The descendants of Jacob, grandson of 'Abraham, our father in faith', as the Roman Canon describes him, became the Hebrew people, the Israelites, the Jewish people. The story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph is our story. But 'there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph'. At Mass this morning I reminded the Sisters and aspirants of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family that our faith is a gift, a gift that can be lost by an individual and by a whole community. When I ent
