Genesis 45:26

Who could describe the joy he experienced then on learning that Joseph was alive and in fact enjoyed such wonderful fame? You know, of course, that it is unexpected blessings that give rise to the keenest surge of enjoyment. Well, in this case the person he thought for so many years had become the prey of wild beasts he now learned had attained complete authority over Egypt; so how could he fail to be dumbfounded by the greatness of his joy? After all, what is caused by excessive despair is often the effect also of extreme rejoicing. We can see many people shedding tears from exceeding joy, whereas others are frequently rendered speechless when they see things they did not expect to happen, and suddenly behold alive those they thought to be dead.

We surely notice how the Scripture says that he is alive and ruler of the whole land, for he opened his storehouses of spiritual grace and gave the abundance to all people. But when the apostles spoke this way, the Jews did not believe them; rather, they laid hands on them and thrust the preachers of salvation into prison. On this account also it is written of Jacob, "He was greatly frightened in heart," for he did not believe his sons. He was greatly frightened from love of an unbelieving people, but afterward he came to recognize Christ's deeds. Won over by the mighty benefactions and mighty works, he revived and said, "It is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him, before I die." The first and greatest foundation of faith is belief in the resurrection of Christ. For whosoever believes Christ has been restored to life, quickly searches for him, comes to him with devotion and worships God with his inmost heart. Indeed, he believes that he himself will not die if he has faith in the source of his resurrection.

Let us indeed see how we ought to hear that which is written, that "Joseph your son is alive." I do not take these words as spoken in a common sense. For if, for the sake of argument, we should suppose that he could have been overcome by lust and had sinned with his master's wife, I do not think that this would have been announced by the patriarchs concerning him to his father Jacob, that "your son Joseph is alive." For if he had done this, without doubt he was not alive. For "the soul that sins, it shall die." But Susanna also teaches the same thing, when she says: "straits are on every side for me. For if I do this" — that is, if I sin — "it is death to me; and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands." You see, then, that she too placed death in sin. But the sentence pronounced by God upon the first man also contains the same thing, when he says: "but on the day you eat of it, you shall die the death." For immediately, as he transgressed the commandment, he died. For the soul died, which sinned, and the serpent is convicted of having deceived, who said: "you shall not die the death." And these things concerning that which was said by the sons of Israel to Jacob, that "Joseph your son is alive." To which things similar things are also reported in what follows, when it is said: "and the spirit of Jacob their father was revived. And Israel said: it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive." What is said in Latin "the spirit was revived," in Greek is written ἀνεζωπύρησεν. Which signifies not so much to revive as, so to speak, to rekindle and to re-ignite. Which is wont to be said when perhaps in some material a fire fails to the point that it seems to be extinguished; and if perhaps by applied kindling it is restored, it is said to be rekindled. Or if the light of a lamp reaches the point that it is thought to be extinguished, if perhaps by oil poured in it is revived, it is said — though in a less polished manner of speaking — that the lamp is rekindled. Similarly also of a torch or other lights of this kind it will be so called. Some such thing, then, this word seems to indicate also in Jacob, namely that, so long as he was far from Joseph and it had not been announced to him about his life, his spirit had as it were failed in him, and the light which was in him, its kindling failing, had already been obscured; but when they came who…