WRESTLING WITH GOD

July 6, Tuesday

FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      The mysterious wrestling of Jacob with God is typical of the wrestling of the Christians of today with themselves and with God – with God seen in the light and the obscurity of faith. Faith is indeed often a wrestling in the night with realities that surpass us, with a God so great and yet so lovable that he appears unbelievable, so different from us, at times like absent, and yet so near. In these struggles, it is often not clear with whom we are wrestling. But we must hold on; we may not allow ourselves to be beaten, until something beautiful is born, a blessing. Also Christ had to wrestle until the dawn of the resurrection and of life.

      Jesus was spreading his message of good news in word and deed. Today he asks us that there may be among us many who hear his invitation to continue his work and to bring his liberating compassion to the people of our day. At least all of us should pray for such messengers, for the need is urgent.

 

First Reading: Genesis 32:23-33

But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.

But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.

The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”

Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.”

The man said, “What’s your name?”

He answered, “Jacob.”

The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”

Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?”

The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him.

Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”

The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. (This is why Israelites to this day don’t eat the hip muscle; because Jacob’s hip was thrown out of joint.)

 

Gospel: Matthew 9:32-38

Right after that, as the blind men were leaving, a man who had been struck speechless by an evil spirit was brought to Jesus. As soon as Jesus threw the evil tormenting spirit out, the man talked away just as if he’d been talking all his life. The people were up on their feet applauding: “There’s never been anything like this in Israel!”

The Pharisees were left sputtering, “Hocus-pocus. It’s nothing but hocus-pocus. He’s probably made a pact with the Devil.”

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”

 

Prayer

Lord, mighty God,
often we interrogate ourselves and life;
we have to come to grips with you, with ourselves
with the realities of life,
so that our faith my survive and grow.
Help us to hold on until dawn,
that victory may be ours
and that you may bless us
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

The demon of silence

Today’s gospel presents the “dumb” demon in a man. We read through the incident as if yet another miracle or healing performed by Jesus, the Master-healer. But the Gospel calls on us to pay attention on this force of evil that has silenced this man.

These evil forces are still tormenting human lives in our present times. They continue to infect in our so-called era of communication. Think of those forces and circumstances that prevent us from speaking out the truth. When we conveniently avoid the truth and refuse to stand for justice, peace and love, it is an indication that these silencing forces are present in our own hearts, in the life of our community and the Church.

These evil forces create secrecy, lack of expression, isolation and distance from personal relationship with others. Such evil forces push us to hide, to seclude ourselves in the suffocating narrowness of our ego. When infected with such forces, we easily get annoyed by others coming into our lives and we put forth, at times, sullen faces. We realise that our neighbourhood are populated with persons who have been thrown away, marginalized, oppressed, discriminated against, abused, exploited, abandoned, poor and suffering.

To fill our personal emptiness and loneliness, we find relief in TV, movies, the Internet, or any other impersonal entertainments.

The problem of the mute is not only in the language. To learn to speak, you must first be able to listen. The evil forces prevent us from listening to the voice of God and voice of people. The only voice that we would then listen to, is that voice that shut us down and keep us silent when faced with injustices, hatred, violence and suppression.

We stand in need of an exorcism today – to drive the demons of fear and selfishness out of our lives to enable us to raise our voice against the presence of the evil. We have preferred silence to speaking against injustice, hatred and violence.

The living presence of Jesus alone can cast out those demons. Scandalous limitations were never lacking in Jesus’ environment, but those did not stop Jesus from speaking words of compassion and forgiveness to those rejected and despised by the community and religious leaders. Meanwhile Jesus remained stern and firm against the self-righteousness of the religious leaders. We stand in liberation from the evil spirit of fear that silences us and be filled with the Holy Spirit of courage, mercy and empathy.

 

Video available onn Youtube: The demon of silence