Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/153

 be found,  let  him  die,  and  we  will  be  the  bondsmen  of  my  lord.” The steward  replied:  “Be  it  according  to  your  words.”

They immediately  took  down  their  sacks  and  opened  them, and when  the  steward  had  searched  them  all,  beginning  with  that of the  eldest,  he  found  the  cup  in  Benjamin’s  sack. The brothers, rending their garments,  loaded  their  asses  again  and  returned  to the  city.

And falling  down  before  Joseph,  they  said:  “Behold,  we are  all  bondsmen  to  my  lord.”  But  Joseph  answered: “God  forbid! He that  stole  the  cup,  he  shall  be  my  bondsman,  and  go you  away  free  to  your  father.”

Then Juda  told  Joseph  how  much  it  had  cost  their  father to part  with  Benjamin. They would  rather  die,  all  of  them,  he said,  than  return  to  their  aged  father  without  his  youngest  son. Juda, moreover,  offered  to  remain,  and  be  the  governor’s  slave till death,  if  he  would  allow  Benjamin  to  go  back  safe  to  his  father.

Sin is  an  ingratitude  to  God. Almighty  God  might  well  say  to  us, what the  steward  said  to  Joseph’s  brethren:  “Why  have  you  returned evil for  good? I have done  good  to  you;  I have  given  you  life  and health and  grace,  and  you  have  repaid  my  bounties  with  ingratitude. You have  done  a very  evil  thing  each  time  you  have  sinned.”  Mortal sin, especially,  is  a base  act  of  ingratitude  towards  God,  our  Father.

Love for  our  parents,  brothers  and  sisters. Juda  had  evidently  a very  sincere  love  both  for  his  father  and  for  his  brother  Benjamin.