JACOB

[This is a sort of story – instead of a homily - for the 14th Friday in Ordinary Time – the readings being: Genesis 46: 1-7, 28-30 and Matthew 10:16-23. I went this way because in these weekday Masses, we’re moving to the end of the Jacob stories and the end of Genesis and we’ll begin Exodus next Monday.]

Good morning. My name is Jacob. Yes, Jacob. My time was a long time ago – some 1700 years before Christ. I was asked last night to say a few words to you this morning. Where do I begin?

I was wondering.... After hearing these stories about me, are there any questions in your mind you’d like to ask me – or am I just background words – long, long ago background music that leads up to Christ?

I was once asked, “What was THE key moment in your life – the turning point – the moment that changed everything?”

I thought of that for a while.

Then I laughed.

I laughed, because the answer would depend on what time of the day you asked me or what time in my life you wanted to know about.

Does anyone know – really know, the key moment of their life – the turning point – the moment that changed every other moment?

I don’t know.

Maybe that’s for historians and for next life discoveries.

So I don’t know. Yet, maybe you see life differently. Maybe you have a definite and clear answer to question and you could give it with a snap of your fingers.

My life ....

I was a twin – the second born – but my mother’s favorite. That was key – because she wanted me to grab my older brother’s first born son status – and birthright. I lied. She lied. We got it from my father Isaac – and I paid for it – twenty years on the run from my brother Esau – the stronger brother. Yet he ended up bigger and better than me – in that he forgave me for my sin – and we were reconciled.

Was it the death of my different wives – especially my favorite Rachel? Or was it seeing her pain when her sister Laban – my first wife – whom I thought was going to be Rachel – had sons – and she didn’t?

Life is funny.

What goes around comes around. I tricked my father and her father-in-law tricked me.

Was it that night when I couldn’t sleep – and I spent the whole night twisting and turning – and wrestling with a mysterious night time visitor – a demon, an angel, a wild man, myself - something – and I hung in there till morning and received a new nickname: Israel and new insights into life?

Life is interesting.

When you’re going through something horrible – like losing a job – or losing a loved one – you experience pain and deep anger. Then comes the “Why?” “Why?” “Why?” And then those why’s lead to a dozen new why’s. It's my experience that one never knows the answers to why’s or where a mystery ends.

One moves and the next place is worse than the place one left – but then one moves to a third place – and one realizes the second was more significant than the first place.

Or sometimes answers to mysteries appear in funny places. Then again, another day, another year, another experience, brings a new take on each place and each situation one has been in or gone trough. Life takes time. Life takes distance. Life takes old age to figure out young age.

So I’m sensing that the best course of action is this: instead of giving answers – instead of questions in my old age – I simply see scenes from my life.

For example, for years – years now – I couldn’t get over the disappearance and death of my favorite son, Joseph. It took me a long, long time to adjust – to get on with life – without him. Then when the cut had become a hard scar – when I had moved on – surprise, I find out he’s not dead, but alive.

There I am in a wagon – surrounded by wagons and children – wives and children – and we’re on the road again. This time we’re headed for my son Joseph – Joseph the Dreamer.

Who would believe he’d come back into our lives – and like Esau forgiving me – he forgave his brothers for what they had done to him and me.

So I’m thinking right now – maybe forgiveness is key – this ability to forgive others, self.

As to forgiving God? No I learned a long time ago that’s deepest idolatry – to think we can forgive God or even ask the question.

But how do people do this – this forgiveness? Does God plant the forgiveness seed in everyone – and as Jesus was to say some 1700 years after me – in some people seeds grow - 30, 60 and 100fold – and in some people the seed just gets choked up or it’s trampled by feet and wagon wheels.

Jesus said you’re going to get a lot of resistance preaching forgiveness – but lack of forgiveness is going to destroy family life and slay the human spirit.

I was to later hear Jesus’ Prodigal Son story. My story was the reverse. My son reached out to me and to my other kids – and forgave us everything. In Jesus story, the father waited. In my story it was the father who was waited for.

Enough. I’ve talked long enough. Let’s keep these wagons rolling and get to whatever is our next. Right now Egypt looks promising, but who knows what might happen next?

Hey, you never know. You never know what’s next. Amen.