From Joseph's Prison to the Sacred Heart
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
When we speak of being hurt, truly and deeply hurt, we’re not just talking about a bad day or a simple disagreement. We are talking about a memory that lives within us. A memory that has a feeling, a temperature, a weight. When you have been betrayed by someone you trust, especially your own family, you don’t just register a “betrayal” like a security camera recording an event. You carry the wound. Your heart remembers the shock, the coldness, the injustice. It’s a memory that can turn into a prison.
Today, our reading presents us with a man who lived in that prison for many years: Joseph. Sold by his own brothers, forgotten in a dungeon, his reality was one of profound and bitter betrayal. And we are invited today, in this novena to the Sacred Heart, to walk with Joseph, not as a distant figure in a book, but as a brother who understands the deepest struggles of the human heart.
The Prison of Bitterness – Joseph's Human Heart
Let us be honest with ourselves. If we were Joseph, what would be growing in our hearts? Would it be forgiveness? Or would it be a seed of bitterness? A seed of hatred, watered daily by the memory of our brothers counting the silver coins?
The book we reflected on earlier, from our discussion, imagined this struggle so well. Joseph’s heart was not immediately saintly. It was human. He must have wrestled with a burning desire for justice, or perhaps even revenge. He surely had conversations with God in that prison that were not filled with pious platitudes, but with the raw cry of a suffering soul: “Why, Lord? How long?”
This is Joseph’s initial struggle. He is us. He shows us that holiness is not the absence of these dark feelings, but the battle against them. He was tempted to let that wound define him, to let bitterness become the king of his heart.
The Anchor of Faith – Joseph's Steadfastness
So what saved him? What kept the prison of bitterness from becoming his tomb? A fragile, but persistent thread of faith. Joseph clung to the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even in the darkness of the pit, even in the injustice of Potiphar’s house, he held onto one truth: God is faithful, even when life is not.
His steadfastness was not a show of power, but an act of profound surrender. He chose to remain a man of integrity when it would have been easier to become cynical. He chose to serve when he had every right to be angry. He kept his heart open to God, even just a crack, allowing God’s grace to work in the shadows. He did not know the plan, but he trusted the Planner.
The Pinnacle of Grace – Seeing with God's Eyes
And this leads us to that breathtaking moment of reunion. His brothers stand before him, terrified. The man they sold as a slave is now the lord of Egypt. The power to crush them, to exact perfect revenge, is in his hands. The prison door of his own heart is now wide open, and he can either lead them into it, or lead them all into freedom.
And what does he do? He weeps. And he says those words that change everything: “Do not be distressed… for it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:5, 8).
This is the pinnacle of his spiritual transformation. What is this? This is grace! Grace is not forgetting the wound. No, the scars were still there. Grace is being given a new set of eyes to see the wound differently. Joseph finally understood the story God was writing. He didn’t just see the betrayal; he saw the salvation. He didn’t just see the sin; he saw the providence. His personal, painful story had become a part of God’s universal story of love and redemption.
From Joseph's Heart to the Sacred Heart
Joseph’s journey shows us that it is possible for the human heart to become a vessel of radical mercy. But, my dear friends, and this is the heart of our reflection today: we cannot be merciful but for His mercy.
Joseph’s heart, in that moment of forgiveness, is a beautiful, shining reflection of the moon. But the moon has no light of its own. It reflects the sun. Joseph’s mercy was a reflection of the mercy of God. We are called today to look at the Sun itself: the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Look at the image of the Sacred Heart. It is a heart, like ours. It is a human heart that loved, rejoiced, and felt the bitterness of betrayal in Gethsemane. It is a heart crowned with thorns—the thorns of our indifference and our sins. It is a heart pierced by a lance—the wound of our rejection.
And what flows from that wounded heart? Not vengeance. Not bitterness. But blood and water. Grace and Mercy. An infinite, unending torrent of forgiveness that washes the world clean.
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has built his pontificate on this truth. As he constantly reminds us in his teachings on mercy, God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of asking for His mercy. He encourages us to see mercy not as a small clause in the contract of our faith, but as, in his words, the “beating heart of the Gospel.”
To Enjoy and Extend Mercy
So what does this mean for us, here, today, in Chennai?
First, we are invited to enjoy the Lord’s mercy. Come to the Sacred Heart. If your heart is a prison of bitterness over an old wound, come to Him. If you are struggling with a sin you cannot seem to shake, come to Him. Run to the Sacrament of Confession, where the mercy flowing from His pierced heart is poured out directly upon you. Do not be afraid. To enjoy His mercy is to accept that you are loved unconditionally, not because you are perfect, but because He is perfect love.
Second, having received this mercy, we are called to extend it. We cannot leave this church and claim to love the Sacred Heart if we harbor hatred in our own. Joseph’s story charges us with a mission. Is there a family member you need to forgive? A colleague you have judged harshly? A grudge you are nursing?
This week, let us make a concrete act of mercy. Make that phone call. Let go of that resentment. Pray for the person who has hurt you. You may feel you don’t have the strength. You are right. You don’t. But you are not asked to do it with your own strength. You are asked to do it with the strength that flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Let us stand now and turn to that Heart, the source of all our hope, and ask for the grace to receive His mercy, and the courage to give it away.