Today's reading from the Book of Genesis tells us of another episode in Jacob’s life. Both episodes are similar in that they happen in the middle of the night. Jacob has been preparing to meet with his estranged brother Esau. He was not at all sure what kind of meeting it was going to be with the brother whom he had cheated out of his birth-right. Each one was now rich and powerful in his own domain. Before the meeting, he takes his two wives (Rachel and Leah), his two slave-girls and his 11 children (the youngest, Benjamin, has been conceived but not born), together with all his possessions to a safer place while he stays behind alone just in case his meeting with Esau does not go well. In the middle of the night, he dreams of struggling with a man. Neither of them is able to overcome the other.
Jacob has been struggling all of his life. First he struggled with his twin brother Esau. He won that battle and secured his father’s blessing, but the struggle ended in an ongoing feud with his brother. Then he struggled with Laban in his attempt to secure Rachel as his wife. After years of indentured servitude and being tricked into taking Leah before Rachel, he finally wins the hand of his beloved Rachel.
Now he struggles in the middle of the night. However, unlike the other struggles in his life, although he is not overcome by the stranger, he cannot himself prevail. When his opponent asks to be released, Jacob refuses to do so until the stranger imparts a blessing. Perhaps this is Jacob’s way of winning a blessing on his own without trickery.
The stranger blesses him with a new name – Israel – a word that means “May God show his strength.” However, it also denotes that Jacob has been strong against the Lord. As we know, Jacob’s descendants become known by his new name. Jacob was smaller than his twin and has been struggling to gain his full maturity and manhood since his youth. Now he reaches that goal and becomes father, patriarch, and founder of a great nation.
It also becomes evident that Jacob has a notion that the stranger has been one of God’s angels or even the Lord Himself. He names the place to indicate that he has been face to face with God and has survived.
The story speaks to us of our own struggle to live a life that is faithful to our relationship with God. All of us are challenged by various obstacles in life. For CUSANS those struggles are often about physical or mental illness or disability. It is just part of being human. Jacob stands as an example to us of remaining steadfast despite the challenges that come his way. That faithfulness is a harbinger of things to come as it is the element that is most striking in the covenant that God forges with Israel on Mt. Sinai. God has been faithful. Israel is called to the same faithfulness as are we.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator