Chapter XI.
All the brothers are intoxicated with St. Joseph; but only Benjamin's cup is placed in the sack. The bags are inspected in order of all the sacks, and finally that vessel is found, and the mysteries of these are revealed; where especially the divine gifts and the calling of Paul are discussed.
60. But they drank and became intoxicated with him (Genesis, XLIII, 34). In the beginning, a greater pre-eminence of faith is given to Paul, about whom it was said to Ananias: Go, for he is a chosen vessel for me, to bear my name before the Gentiles (Acts, IX, 15). In the beginning, she is intoxicated with sobriety, but sober; so that he himself would say with the saints: And your cup is drunk, how excellent it is (Psalm, XXII, 5)!
61. And a silver cup is placed in his sack alone (Gen. XLIV, 2). Benjamin did not know this: Paul was deceived, but he was called. He is sent after him in the morning. For the night had passed, the day of faith was approaching.
62. The bags are inspected first in order (Ibid. 12 et seq.). Divine Scripture teaches you morality. In order, they reclined at the banquet against him, the first according to age (Gen. XLIII, 33). You see that that place is to be given to the elder. In order, the bags of each one are examined again, so that you may know that Paul was chosen by heavenly judgment. He disproved the others, and preferred this one. In no one else's bag was a silver cup found, except this one. What does it mean that he is inside a bag? Indeed, Joseph made himself drunk in order to deceive: he sent a cup to bring back the brother whom he loved, in a pious deception: but divine mysteries shine forth.
63. Christ found in us silver, which he himself has given. We have the silver of nature, we also have the silver of grace. Nature is the work of the Creator: grace is the gift of the Redeemer. And if we cannot see the gifts of Christ; yet he gives, and operates secretly, and gives to all: but to preserve is the work of a few, and not to lose. However, he does not give everything to everyone. Wheat is given to many, the cup to one, who is given the gift of prophecy and priesthood. For not all, but the Prophet says: I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord (Psalm 115:13).
64. Therefore, in the body of Paul, the splendor of heavenly doctrine already shone forth, since he was learned in the law. But because he was not yet subject to the righteousness of God, he was within a sack, doctrine within the law, a lamp within a bushel. However, Ananias was sent to offer a blessing, lay hands on him, and loosen the sack: with the sack loosened, silver shone forth, and as if certain bonds of the sack had fallen away, scales immediately fell from his eyes (Acts 9:17). His bond was perfidy: his release was faith. And therefore, like one unbound from a sack, that is, from the veil of the law which is placed over the heart of the Jews, he turned to the Lord, freed from the bondage, and obtained the grace of freedom, saying: So, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God, we are being transformed into the same image (2 Corinthians 3:18). For with the loosing of the shoe of the law, he preached the Gospel with the naked footstep of free speech. The Jews held him and wanted to hinder him, but when the silver shone in his sack, they tore their clothes and turned back. For the preaching of Christ by Paul has exposed the people of the Jews and has cut off all their favor.
Therefore, they returned backward who could not see before them (Gen. XLIV, 13). They go back who lose Christ. Finally, in the Gospel (John XVIII, 6) when they seized the Lord Jesus to lead Him to His death, they fell backward to the ground. They rightly returned backward who fell from heavenly grace into earthly depravity. Therefore, they did not want to return morally without a brother, mystically without Paul: with him gone, they claimed that the sorrowful old age of the parent people should be led.
And so Judas wanted to remain with Joseph (Gen. XLIV, 18 et seq.), so that he would not see the bad things that they would find about his father, that is, he foresaw and wanted to guard against the bad things that were going to happen to the Jewish people. But since these same things were not yet in that type of free preaching of the leaders of the Jewish people, Joseph wept, that is, Jesus wept.