Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 32:23-33; Matthew 9:32-38)

A boy of about ten or eleven years old had a providential experience that affected his entire life.  The boy heard from friends about the adolescent prank of stealing inner tube caps.  One day he was playing at the curb of the street and began unscrewing the inner tube cap of a car that was parked there.  Before he had the cap off, however, the car’s owner came out shouting, “What are you doing to that car.”  The buy screwed the cap on quickly and was never tempted to steal again.  In the reading from Genesis Jacob undergoes a similar life-changing experience.

Jacob has left his father-in-law’s ranch a wealthy man.  His own wits, not God, made him rich.  But God is not far away.  He is the stranger with whom Jacob wrestles.  The struggle is actually a metaphor for Jacob’s troubled conscience, the voice of God.  He knows that he swindled his brother Esau years before and now cannot sleep because of guilt.  Jacob survives the encounter and even manages to extract a blessing from his opponent.  He will have to somehow reconcile with Esau but will no longer be defined by his twin brother.  He was given the name Jacob meaning heel catcher because he was born lurching after Esau who came out of his mother’s womb first.  From now on he will be called Israel after God Himself since Israel is said to mean you have struggled with God.

We too know what it is like to struggle with God when we ask ourselves questions like, “Did I dwell too long on an impure thought?” or “Would it be wrong to leave work early without permission?”  As God does not destroy Jacob, he does not abandon us because of our sins.  Rather, He lets us know that we are His sons and daughters whom He forgives and blesses when we honestly take account of our sins and make amends for them. 

Homilette for Tuesday, July 7, 2008

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary time

(Genesis 32:23-33; Matthew 9:32-38)

Today’s episode of the saga of Jacob takes place at least twenty years after his famous dream that was reported yesterday. In this long interval Jacob has acquired two wives and twelve children. He has become rich by hard work, skill, and cunning, but not through noticeable reliance on God. As he returns to his father’s land and to his probably vengeful brother Esau, a man attacks him. The two wrestle all night with neither actually prevailing. Then the assailant, in a hurry to leave, strikes Jacob at his hip which will bring about a limp. Still Jacob holds on tenaciously to make a bargain with his opponent. He will release him only if the man returns the favor with a blessing. The man gives Jacob a new name suggestive of his new stature. From now on he is no longer Jacob, a name which means heel catcher because he was born holding his twin brother Esau’s heel, but Israel, a name indicating that he has struggled with God and prevailed.

What are we to make of all this? For most of his life to this point Jacob has ignored God. As he is about to encounter his brother Esau, however, God throws Himself on Jacob in an act of saving grace. Jacob is forced to struggle with God, who mercifully does not destroy him but leaves him limping as a constant reminder of Jacob’s dependence. The incident changes Jacob’s life entirely. He is no longer defined by Esau, but by God whom he comes to acknowledge as Lord.

Perhaps we in our doubts and fears also struggle with God. It may be that out of love for God we always try to accommodate others. “Why,” we ask, “is it always I who must give in?” Yes, we are a bit jaded by the experience of forever making ourselves available. But we are also left closer to God who, we can be sure, has bestowed on us His blessing.

Homilette for Monday, September 24, 2007

Monday, XXV Week of Ordinary Time

(Ezra 1)

There is hardly anything but tension today between Iran (modern Persia) and Israel (the Jewish state that incorporates most of the former Kingdoms of Judah and of Israel). The first reading from the prophet Ezra reminds us that relations were not always strained. In fact, with a history so long that it astounds the mind, Iran and Israel have had many ups and downs together. The peak recounted in our reading shows the king of Persia promoting the reestablishment of the Temple, the center of Jewish life.

Although the events narrated in the reading take place four hundred years before Christ, we Christians still read them as prefatory to his coming. The recognition of the Jewish God by a foreign king and the cooperation of different peoples to rebuild a great monument to that God anticipate the age of Jesus. With the push still being generated by his paschal experience people at the ends of the earth have come to praise God’s name. Likewise, individual Christians everywhere form new temples created through the love which the Holy Spirit deposits in their hearts.

We can also read the text as a sign of hope in this time of near crisis. Iranian leaders have threatened to drive Israel into the sea. But Israel has the military power to demolish Iran which it swaggers from time to time. If war breaks out between the two powers, there can hardly be a prosperous future for both nations. Therefore, we pray that the fraternity between the two peoples demonstrated in the reading reappears without armed hostilities.