By Ron Bruni
The unifying theme in today’s passages is desperate dependence on God that leads to transformation, blessing, and a call to compassionate action. Each text features individuals or communities in crises wrestling with their limitations and needs and encountering God's presence, often through struggle, prayer, or compassion. These encounters lead to a deeper reliance on God and a changed life, which overflows into mission and service to others.
Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Genesis 32:23-33
Matthew 9:32-38
Today's readings are taken from Genesis, Psalm 17, and (since we are back in cycle A of the liturgical calendar) Matthew. The unifying theme in these passages is desperate dependence on God that leads to transformation, blessing, and a call to compassionate action. Each text features individuals or communities in crises wrestling with their limitations and needs and encountering God's presence, often through struggle, prayer, or compassion. These encounters lead to a deeper reliance on God and a changed life, which overflows into mission and service to others. A harbinger of what God expects from all of us.
These passages (Tuesday, July 9, 2025) have caught the eyes of past popes. Specifically, Pope St. John Paul II referenced Jacob's struggles in his Theology of the Body and other writings, interpreting it as a metaphor for humanity's spiritual struggle and encounter with God's grace. Pope Francis explicitly discussed Genesis 32 in a 2020 general audience, calling Jacob's wrestling a metaphor for prayer and emphasizing the importance of surrendering to God's will.
The relationship between Jacob and Esau, as depicted in today's readings, is one of the most turbulent sibling rivalries in the Bible, rooted in deception, competition, and unresolved anger. Even before their birth, the twins struggled in their mother Rebecca's womb, foreshadowing a lifetime of conflict.
Jacob first manipulated Esau into selling his birthright for a meal when Esau was famished, exchanging a monetary need for a lifelong privilege. Later, with the help of their mother, Jacob deceived their blind father, Isaac, to receive the blessing intended for Esau, the firstborn. This act of betrayal deeply wounded Esau, who then vowed to kill Jacob after their father's death. Fearing for his life, Jacob fled to his uncle Laban, who lived in Haran, and then spent about 20 years there. During this period, Jacob himself was deceived and humbled through hard labor and family strife. Eventually, Jacob grew tired of Laban’s taking advantage of him, prompting God to instruct Jacob to return home, which meant facing Esau and the unresolved past. Jacob, aware of Esau's last threat and the depth of his wrongdoing, was filled with deserved fear and anxiety as he approached the land of his birth.
On the eve of meeting Esau, Jacob was desperate and terrified, having learned that Esau was approaching with 400 men, a sign that could portend war or vengeance. Jacob divided his family and possessions into two camps to maximize the chance of survival, and he sent generous gifts to the head of Esau's camp to appease him. That night, Jacob had a mysterious and transformative encounter, which is the subject of today's readings. He wrestled with a man, later revealed to be God or an angel, until daybreak. The struggle was both physical and spiritual, symbolizing Jacob's lifelong pattern of striving, manipulating, and wrestling with others and with God.
Jacob refused to let go until he received a blessing, even though the angel, having struck him in his hip, was causing him extreme pain. In response, God changed his name from Jacob, which meant "supplanter" or "deceiver," to Israel, meaning "one who struggles with God" or "God fights." Jacob emerged from this encounter, physically marked with a limp and spiritually transformed, now dependent on God's grace rather than his cunning. ( As an aside, Jewish people today commemorate Jacob's struggle with the divine being who touched his hip by abstaining from eating the sinew of the thigh, also known as the gid hanasheh of kosher animals.)
The next day, Jacob met Esau, bowing humbly before him. Contrary to Jacob's fears, Esau ran to embrace him, weeping, and accepted the gifts only after Jacob insisted. This act of forgiveness and reconciliation was unexpected, considering the history of betrayal and anger perpetrated by Jacob.
God's choice to wrestle with Jacob rather than comfort him in his fear reveals a profound truth about how God fosters growth through challenge. The wrestling match was not about defeating Jacob but about transforming him — moving him from self-reliance to dependence on God, from manipulation to surrender, and from fear to faith.
In Psalm 17, the psalmist cries out for God's attention and vindication, trusting that God tests hearts and hears prayers. He seeks refuge in God's presence, expressing confidence that true satisfaction comes from seeing God's face and being transformed into his likeness. Again, the idea of transformation and the invitation to honest, persistent prayer, trusting God with our hearts and futures.
The miracles depicted in Matthew's gospel are to highlight Jesus as the Messiah and the new Moses. Since Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience, he emphasized miracles to fulfill the expectations of the Messiah found in the Old Testament.
Consequently, Matthew 9 presents a comprehensive portrait of Jesus, demonstrating his divine authority and compassionate mission through word and deed, as he possesses power over sin, sickness, death, and spiritual forces. Jesus exorcised a demon that had rendered a man mute and restored his speech instantly. The crowd reacted with awe: "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." The Pharisees, on the other hand, said, "He drives out demons by the prince of demons." By attributing Jesus' miracles to demonic power, the Pharisees sought to protect their religious authority and traditions, which Jesus' teachings and actions were challenging.
In this gospel reading, we see how Jesus is moved with compassion for the harassed and helpless crowds, likening them to sheep without a shepherd. This is the theme we followed throughout Eastertide: Jesus is the shepherd, looking after us, his sheep. This gospel reading is situated within a pivotal chapter that serves as a bridge between Jesus' teaching ministry in the Sermon on the Mount and his commissioning of the disciples in chapter 10, establishing the theological and practical foundation for Christian discipleship and mission. It blends Jesus' healing miracles with His broader mission of compassion, spiritual authority, and the call to discipleship. It encapsulates key themes that thread through Matthew's narrative, revealing Jesus' identity as the Messiah and the escalating tension with religious leaders.
God's approach to Jacob demonstrates that spiritual growth is often forged in the fires of struggle rather than in comfort. By wrestling with Jacob, God invited him—and us—to a deeper, more authentic relationship where transformation comes through surrender and perseverance in the face of challenges. Growth and God's design are not about avoiding pain but about being changed by it, emerging with a new identity and a deeper faith.
Every Christian will face moments of wrestling—times when God brings us to the end of ourselves so that we might cling to him. Like Jacob, we may walk away with a limp but also with a new identity and a deeper dependence on God. Like the psalmist, we are invited to honest, persistent prayer, trusting God with our hearts and futures. Like Jesus's disciples, we are called to see the world through the eyes of compassion and to respond to God's call to serve.
Jacob's transformation wasn't just for himself; it was for his family and the generations that followed. Likewise, the lessons and empathy gained through our struggles can equip us to encourage, comfort, and serve others who are hurting.
Supplication: Where am I wrestling with God right now? What am I afraid to let go of? How has God used past wounds to shape my character or faith? Let us pray: Lord, use my struggle to draw me closer to you. Transform my wounds into reminders of your grace.