14th Week of Ordinary Time C – Tuesday

In the first reading, Jacob moves all of his belongings, with his two wives and children (one of these is Benjamin, who has been conceived and not yet born) and they cross a river which is an eastern tributary of the Jordan originating near present-day Amman. It is known today as the Wadi A-Zarqa and flows westwards into the Jordan about 30 km north of the Dead Sea.

Once everything is moved across, and Jacob lagged behind in the late hour of the night, he has a mysterious encounter with an unnamed man, and they wrestle until dawn. His opponent ends up being God himself, who is allowing Jacob the upper hand. The Jerusalem Bible comments on this scene:

“This enigmatic story, probably Yahwistic, speaks of a physical struggle, a wrestling with God from which Jacob seems to emerge victor. Jacob recognises the supernatural character of his adversary and extorts a blessing from him.”

Brothers and sisters, let us now examine some of the spiritual insights that we can apply to our own lives, through this experience of Jacob who wrestles with God who seems to become powerless at the hands of mere mortals.

Think about how and when in your life, God humbles himself and becomes powerless, so to speak, gives us the upper hand, allows us to “handle him” and move him about from one place to another. Did any of you get the same thought and insight that God blessed me with as I prepared this homily – that is, does not God, who is infinite and omnipotent in his power and majesty, come to us with such tenderness so as to allow us to hold him with our hands or receive him on our tongues at every holy communion? As a priest, my brothers and sisters, I can tell you… that each time I hold him in my hands during Mass, I think to myself, “Wow, I am not worthy to be handling, in my sinful hands, the infinite God, Lord of Hosts, who has hidden himself under the veil of such nothingness, such lowliness, such vulnerability.” It is for this reason that the contemplative and Eucharistic Saint Peter Julian Eymard once said: “In the Eucharist, Jesus… veils His glory, His majesty, His power, His unceasing action in souls, and leaves in evidence only His poverty and weakness, His nothingness as a human creature, His love as our Savior.” (1)

And this is what he did with Jacob. He allowed himself to become vulnerable with Jacob, so that he could be close to Jacob and Jacob to him. Oh my brothers and sisters, if we only knew how much God not only desires to be with us, but how he in fact already is with us, veiled as he was with Jacob, under the guise of a mysterious stranger!

The gospel for today is another powerful example of this. Jesus approaches, moves closer to the masses of people, and great healing power is coming out of Him. He is God, who has drawn nearer than they realized. They knew Jesus was special, but the God of the universe? Not likely. Yet there he was, standing in their midst. So too, that tiny host which rests on your hand or tongue when you walk up during Holy Communion… he is there, joyfully, yet humbly, allowing us to taste and see how good he is, wonderful in his humility and loving in his kindness. And may he bless you this day. + Amen.

• Peter Julian Eymard, In the Light of the Monstrance, trans. Rev. Charles De Keyser (New York: The Sentinel Press, 1947), 75.