Matthew 24 : 45-51
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“So, Pharaoh said to Joseph, (…) ‘you shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command; only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you.”
The patriarch Joseph, from the book of Genesis, is a type, a foreshadowing of Christ’s Kingdom. Joseph is a type of Christ. But Sacred Scripture can be illuminated from different angles, and the image of Joseph and his promotion by Pharaoh can also be seen from the events of Good Friday and the great ‘promotion’ of Christ’s mother to be our mother.
If we read the sacred text slowly, we can place ourselves with the small group at the foot of the Cross and hear Christ speak those words to St. John the Apostle, “Behold your mother” (John 19:27). Christ did not bestow a merely honorary title: Mary truly is our mother, and we are her children.
“Mary’s motherhood through the mystery of the Cross took an unimaginable leap: the mother of Jesus became the new Eve, the source of new and eternal life for every person who comes into the world, because her Son associated her with his redemptive death.” -Leo XIV, Homily 9-06-2025. This title that Mary now has gives her an almost infinite power in the Kingdom of God. Her requests are always answered; no prayer goes unanswered.
Mary speaks very little in the Gospels, but her look, her gaze is one of contemplation and understanding. We ask her, in this holy season of the Cross to help us to unite ourselves with the Cross of her Son so that we may resemble her Son and share in the work of Redemption, the co-redemption of the whole human race.
† Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus