Moving difficulties

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary tell of movement and the anticipation of the consequences of this action. Our relationship with God is an invitation to transformation which continues daily. Friar JudeWinkler notes that Jacob (Israel) is reluctant to go to Egypt. Perhaps the decision to go and move toward change was difficult for an elderly person with his personality. The decision of Joseph to settle his family in Goshen, a fertile part of Egypt which is closest to Canaan, is seen by some commentators as an attempt to bring the people of God into the world of Egypt but at the same time to attempt to set them apart from the excesses of Egyptian society and the worship of ungodly things. The mission to be in the world and yet not of the world is translated to the disciples of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew as advice about the suffering, rejection and persecution they will experience as they begin to live according to the Way. This gospel was written to Jewish followers of Jesus who, at the time were being expelled from the synagogues and who experienced the full distain of the communities who perceived them as being outside the circle of the people who had tried since Israel to separate themselves from influences which threatened the status quo of their culture. We are called to live with love for all. This mission makes it necessary to break down walls of separation between people which have been erected by ethnic, cultural, religious, racial and economic groups to avoid interaction, reconciliation, compassion, empathy and love. Movement is required.