Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

“You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.”

Jacob may be the most complex character among the patriarch’s of Israel. We admire Abraham for his intense fidelity to the Lord, a trait which God cultivated through many trials. Isaac is a simpleton by comparison; he is mostly a bridge character between his father and his son. His wife Rebecca steals the show from him, being more clever, devious and charming.

And then comes Jacob, a true child of his mother. Although he is the younger son he robs his elder brother Esau of this inheritance. In a moment of apparent jesting, Esau surrendered his birthright for a “bowl of pottage.” He probably never gave the incident a second thought until Jacob and Rebecca swindled the blind, befuddled Isaac into bestowing his blessing on the younger son.

Being a conman, Jacob could also be conned, as he was by his devious father-in-law, Laban. Jacob loved the ravishingly beautiful Rachel but her father wanted to marry off her less attractive, older sister Leah first. So Jacob ended up marrying both women, and then had to deal with their endless quarreling.

But he and Rachel conspired to con Laban by absconding with most of Laban’s sheep and goats and, adding insult to injury, the “household gods.”

(The beauty of the Hebrew Scriptures is their rendition of the patriarchs as very plausible human beings. They were not paragons of virtue but they were God’s chosen!)

Finally, we arrive at the story today when Jacob returns to his homeland to meet his brother Esau. Esau, to everyone’s relief, will prove to be magnanimous and gracious. He has prospered despite his ill luck and bears no grudge against Jacob.

But Jacob cannot know that as he passes a long night in solitude. In this story we find him wrestling with “some man” who is finally revealed as “the angel of God,” who is God himself. Jacob then receives a new name, Israel, indicating the renewed covenant God makes with him.  

“Wrestling with God” comes with the covenant with him. Somehow we must discover our integrity as human beings in the presence of an All-mighty, All-knowing, All-loving, All-merciful, and All-gracious God. Where is there room for one’s own opinions, needs and identity within such an embrace?

The two-year-old child contends with this issue as he learns the power of that wonderful word, “NO!” He is, in essence, saying “I am not you. I have my own will, and it’s determined by my own capricious desires, preferences and whims.”

The respectful parents will have to deal with this charming egotist as they want to feed, cleanse, protect and discipline the child. “Where did this stranger come from?” they ask one another.

For all eternity each of us is burdened with personal identity. It is a blessing and a curse, a nuisance to tyrants and an invaluable treasure to loved ones. We cannot give our freedom away, nor can we bear its price. Occasionally, in moments of ecstasy, we will forget our separateness in the fascinating presence of God; only to rediscover it in the abyssal darkness of apartness from God.

The mischievous, often-deceitful Jacob cannot win his contest with the midnight stranger, nor can he afford to lose it. In the end they resolve it in friendship. The cost to Jacob will be a permanent disability, like the incurable wound of the Fisher King in medieval literature. But he will also take from that night the blessing of God’s beloved, a treasure well worth the struggle.