God Builds Us Like Man Builds a Fire

This morning over my Rosary’s Sorrowful Mysteries I watched the morning fire start. I could not help but realize how in everything God unveils his mysteries to us and sends forth his Spirit in the exact same way. It takes the verse 1 Peter 1:6-7 to greater clarity in my life.

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may rebound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

When we cut up trees, we ideally get them fresh and healthy. Then we bring them down, size and split them. We stack the wood carefully and protect it to cure. All the moisture inside evaporates away, and all you have left is fuel for the fire. We collect the splinters, chips and shavings from all the work and use it for kindling as well. We should waste nothing from our bounty if at all possible.

While this is the ideal, life rarely meets the model described above. Sometimes the wood is damp, or partly cured before we need to use it. We may have inadequate storage. We could process it improperly as well. Yet despite these challenges, we will still need to use it to keep us warm and healthy.

So when we start the fire, we take our imperfect materials to build the structure we will ignite. Sometimes the stove may be warm, and sometimes it is stone cold. If your materials are dry, the structure well formed, and stove warm it will fire up in minutes with smoke going right up the chimney. If the stove is cold, and the materials poor, the probability of a rapid start is low. You will risk great back drafts and smoke filling your home as you struggle to obtain the critical ignition temperature and back draft defeating heat.

Is this not like our lives? Some of us grow up in good environments, and are blessed to meet the Lord in this life ready to ignite through his fiery Holy Spirit dry and well constructed? Some of us face challenging environments were we need extra care in various steps of the journey to be consumed by the Spirit and become one with God.

God did not spare his own son from this journey. In the Garden he prayed so hard, and accepted all our sins, causing blood to bleed from his precious temples. His son was then prepared for sacrifice through a scourging so rough it would kill most men. Despite this he accepted his crown of white and red martyrdom in quiet acceptance and obedience to the Father. He carried the cross, and needed help from a man who represents who we should be, to make the final steps to his crucifixion. We, as simple men, probably cannot see how the Father lifted his son along the path to our redemption. Yet we know every grace comes from the Father, and our virtuous glories only result from being one with the Father’s will.

So today as I move through my trials, I will try and remember God’s working on me to build the fire despite the imperfect materials I consist of in our cold and fallen world. I hope once I get going, just maybe, I’ll be able to spread his loving warmth and energy for as long as I live well beyond the stove

-ehw

Holy Family

A great day to remember and celebrate the trials, tribulations and triumph of the Holy Family. It is a great and favorite family feast day…our family, farm and life is dedicated to their example. God Bless! Pass on the faith one generation to the next in the domestic church by work and words!

-ehw

Barring Our Doors to God

This week we listened to several powerful readings about the woes of Israel under the Prophet Eli. Eli refused to correct his sons when in error and sin, and then allowed them to lead others into confusion. Thousands died, and the Philistines captured the Arc of the Covenant as a result his failure to evangelize in a difficult situation. We also heard the story of Eli thinking a woman, Hannah, praying fervently for a child was drunk and only reluctantly ministers to her as a priest of Israel.

Both of these stories struck home to me since I cannot unsee the chaos in my church right now. I see so many good people, religious and laymen, who will not evangelize their flock and family in the magisterial tradition of the church. Of course where God’s wisdom is not sown by those bestowed with spiritual authority, man’s knowledge and earthly values will take hold to lead them astray. Where heartfelt worship of God is looked on with disdain by those with spiritual authority, despair will engulf the poor in spirit.

As a young man I was proud to see in my church many different forms of expressing ones spirituality. I knew evangelicals, I knew those steeped in traditions of their grandparents, and I knew those who embraced the New Mass. I always thought it wonderful people could stay inside the same dogmatic theology, while embracing the personality traits and charisms given to them by God. Each in their own way was willing to take different actions and risks to help bring people to Christ.

Sadly this is not the path many prelates seek to follow today. Some in power, think they can suddenly ban what is dogmatically correct. To strengthen their argument, they change the catechism based on opinion and not tested theology. These same people think they can make a new practice which will allow sinners to stay in sin, wallow in their own pride, and still have hope of obtaining heaven. Still others administer the church as if it is a business, and there is nothing in their actions which really make them spiritually connected to their saintly forefathers.

Such prelates and laymen are simply the new Eli’s. The vengeance which I see lashed out against people of faith, shows these prelates to be scared of the diversity of expositions of faith built into the history of the church . I would fault them not if the diversity was rooted in heresy or even minor error. This is not the case however when those banned are doing something dogmatically correct and personally enriching.

I will pray for softened hearts, which turn toward God when called in all of us. I will pray abuses of authority will end, and all will set themselves facing East. There we will listen to the call of the Son of God passed down through the ages to guide us through today’s challenges. I will pray those who need solitude in caves find it. I will pray those who need a specific wisdom filled community find one to match their needs. I will pray those who follow the “little way” or those called to make a big wave advance the kingdom of God in their domains. I will pray those barring the doors to God’s wisdom and his sacraments make way for the Lord instead.

Finally, I will forgive these modern Eli’s and the damage those of his family cause. For in their actions they forced me to reaffirm that in my house we stand with I AM WHO AM and all his wisdom.

-ehw

Heavy Metal at a Tank Farm - And Family History

My Dad and I took the boys on a Trail Life scouting adventure this weekend. Full of heavy metal…it was worth the trip, heat and dust. Lots of good stories behind these vehicles, but the most important story is the last photo..

See 25 years ago I met my future Grandfather-in-law for the first time. He and his twin brother were ambulance drivers for hospitals supporting First Army in the drive towards Aachen. Granddad did not talk to anyone about what went on there for as long as anyone could remember. When I met him I had just driven the roads of his old resupply route as an Army Captain doing a self created staff ride.

So we talked. I knew this was his vehicle, and we talked about the tree lined roads he drove. I talked about the engine as well and how it handled. We were just making small talk, but then I asked him about the long throw on the manual transmission. I asked him how was it to work on the mud and snow. His eyes locked on mine and the real stories came out. Soon the family surrounded the two of us to hear stories never heard before.

In those few moments I became part of the family. So every time I see those Dodge 3/4 ton Ambulances, I smile and remember the soldier hero Granddad of 1944-1945 bouncing across Belgium and Germany to save lives of injured men.

M18 Hellcat. Fasted tracked vehicle of WWII. US Tank Destroyer.

M10 Tank Destroyer

M42 Duster’s 40mm turret

M4A1 Sherman. Note the cast hull and turret with 75mm gun.

Dodge 3/4 Ton Ambulance. The truck which let me talk to my Grandad-in-law and have his story told to the family.

A Church Renewed

Each Generation has a duty to renew the church…and at Christendom they built a wonderful place of worship as part of this duty and here it is…

Thanksgiving for Blessings and Crosses from the Father

 This year I learned, once again how the blessings of the Lord in our lives also include the crosses.  For this lesson I remain thankful to the Lord, and humbly give praise to him for things the world sees as signs of success and as obstacles to pure enjoyment.  Frankly it is this lesson, in which God the Father builds our character, which modern society rejects which forms the roots of our greatest sins against God.

            Hebrews 12 6-10:

For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.  Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons.  Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh, for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live?   And they indeed for a few days, according to their own pleasure, instructed us: but he, for our profit, that we might receive his sanctification.  Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice.

Cite: Vulgate - Douay-Rheims - Knox Bible side by side (catholicbible.online)

            The Church Fathers cite the following passages from the Old to New Testaments to support this teaching:

·       Deuteronomy 8:5-6: So you must realize that the LORD, your God, disciplines you even as a man disciplines his son.  Therefore, keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.

·       Proverbs 3:12: For whom the LORD loves he reproves, and he chastises the son he favors.

·       1 Corinthians 11:31-32: If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment; but since we are judged by [the] Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

·       Revelation 3:19: Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise.  Be earnest, therefore, and repent.

Cite: God's Fatherly Discipline, the Promise of the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Unshakable Kingdom (agapebiblestudy.com)

          Today I know with absolute certainty why we face our trials in daily life.  It is to ensure our conscience must face either the known conflict before us with God’s written laws, or if we are ignorant of them Natural Law.  In these ethical confrontations we must resolve to be with God or against him.  These decisions determine if we end our lives as a friend of Christ, and participant in his Passion, or unknown to his eternal family.

            In a society which wants all to claim victory with no proof of winning, demonizes strong husbands, endorses fathers shirking their duties to wives and children, demeans the essential cultural core of women in a family’s life, desires to steal the morality authority of parents over their children, and casts God’s Law below the level of trash in the dump opportunities abound to respond favorably to God’s chastisements and training.  It brings pain to live this way, and I am no stranger to it.  I can see the benefits of embracing the cross in the lives of myself, my wife, my family and those who are my role models everyday.

            Without the blessings of crosses I would not be deeper into my Bible than ever before.  I would not read the Church Fathers direct apostolic commentary on what Christ meant though its connection to tradition and even more ancient text.  I would not be working nights, helping with Trail Life in a leadership role, have moved to a more farm like location, or embraced the culture of life central to Christian living.  Without such deep reflection I would not understand these crosses result from God’s Permissive Will, the effects of my own and other’s choices, and so I would blame God as my enemy.  Rather now know I must work towards the virtue of Job who was resolute in his faith despite adversity and temptation. 

            My challenge in the coming years is to embrace these challenges with joy, by example to point others to Christ, and connect people to the lost meaning of God’s Patriarchy by opening a door for them to receive the Holy Spirit.  All this must be done through the sacramental cornerstones of the eucharist and confession, and with my family by my side.  Only in this way will I find the peace the world cannot give, and express my thankfulness to God properly on a joyous day like today.

The Prodigal Son and the Lost Lamb

               Today’s Gospel (Sept 11, 2022; Luke 15: 1-32) recalls the Pharisees persecution of Jesus for dinning with sinners, and his rebuke of their actions.  Typically, this sermon focuses only on the Prodigal Son parable, and leaves out the context of the entire discourse.  As such, many of the faithful receive great angst in the lesson of the Prodigal Son, and are denied the richness of the lessons our Lord, and the Holy Spirit, provides in Luke 15.

               In the opening verses, the Pharisees rebuke Jesus for dinning with sinners and not themselves.  Dinning with a person was a great honor, it is where deals got made and esteem both received and provided.  It is still this way today.  Who does not get upset when you are passed over during a family visit by a relative you want to both admire and be admired by?

               Christ addressed the Pharisees in the Gospel today using The Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son parables.  First, we know the Pharisees were the self-proclaimed righteous of their day.  The political and spiritual authority over the faithful.  They were of course resentful some dirt poor, uncultured and poor lineage man would be preaching and turning souls to Christ rather then them.  They realized the great works of Christ came from God, and wanted those glories provided only to them.  They did not want to share any glory or power with those who were fallen away based on the religious laws of temple based Judaism. 

               In the Lost Sheep parable, the Shepard leaves his flock to find a lost lamb.  He did not however leave the flock completely unattended.  Any flock would have its rams, possibly dogs and other farm hands to care for it in his absence.  The remaining flock still had tools to find its way to safety while the Shepard did his work finding the lost sheep.  In fact, the flock may not even notice the Shepard was absent for a little while! 

               In seeing this Gospel in its entirety, we understand why the herd, the other farm hands, and master Shepard all rejoice together with the return of the lost sheep.  There is no jealousy with the return of the lost.  Those who never lost communion with the flock wanted for nothing, and gained strength with a returning member.  This is how the truly righteous flock reacts when someone comes home to the church.  It does not mean a mother would fail to scold her lost sheep, the sheep lost the chance to feast on some good fresh grass with the heard, or must pay a penance like be tied to its mother for a while.  It just means we are happy to rejoice with the Shepard since a lost soul returned to the fold.

               In the following parable of the Prodigal Son, we see a son willingly return to the father after great apostasy.  In this story however, the outwardly righteous son allows the door of jealousy to open with his brothers return.  The lost son receives what he needs to enter the house properly attired.  The righteous son however allows vanity to creep out of his mind, and complains about the Father using his resources for the prodigal son.  This is where the lack of context with the Lost Sheep hurts many righteous believers.

               We know in both stories, the Shepard and the Father, represent respectively Christ and God in the Holy Trinity.  In the first we know it is Jesus himself who tends to his lost sheep in the wild land of dangerous evils.  In the second we see the Father remain in his estate, while the Holy Spirit works on the soul of the lost prodigal son while he is amongst the heathen.  In one we see the hero working to save souls, in the other we do not.  In one the righteous remain confident in their God’s graces without care, while in the second we see those striving for righteousness supposedly inside the salvation law concerned about a lack of God's Graces for themselves.  Or maybe more succinctly, the sheep were confident of God’s Divine Mercy while the others were questioning the infinite scope of the same Divine Mercy. 

               The allusions to being properly attired before entering the house of God, and Heaven, abound in the Gospels.  We are told those not properly attired, have enough lamp oil, and also those who respond to the invitation too late fall into hell when the Bridegroom returns and the party begins.  So in the Prodigal Son, God attires his son properly on his return.  In contrast the sheep were already properly attired in their hearts, and the party needs no delay.  Maybe another way to think about it is the sheep recognized Jesus working amongst them, while the Prodigal Son did not recognize the true power of God the Father.

In this discourse Jesus directly handles the situation where he was amongst the people, and when he will be in Heaven with the Father.  It shows us what is right, and what is wrong in our hearts when we choose to be his disciples.  In both situations we must remain open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and continue to refine our souls to be worthy of Divine Mercy.  The faithful need to hear both parables to know why Jesus provided them.  Only in this way does the fuller context help us conform our souls to his will joyfully.  He wants us all to be confident in his love, and in these two stories he shows us clearly the difference in the souls of those resting fully in him, those still needing help to find inner peace, and those who want to resist his call to a fuller holiness.

A Graduation Message to Our Son

Kalen

You make us proud every day for the man you are growing into.  In the end, school honors and the riches of earth mean nothing in life.  The goal of parenting is to set you on the path to eternal happiness in Jesus Christ’s words and the celebration of Mass in Heaven with the Father above.

            Your mother and I remain proud of your moral compass always pointing towards heaven.  As a result, your relationships and work continue to do right by God and the world.  You will be fine, and indeed excel in all things you seek to do. 

            Just remember as you step out on the next life’s adventure, we will forever be your loving parents who pray and sacrifice for you daily.  You always have refuge with us, and a launching pad for life’s adventures.  All we ask is the same our parents asked of us, to do the same for your children in whatever vocation the Lord calls you.  In this way God’s grace goes from generation to generation as he intends to forever.

Love

Mom and Dad

His Morning Glory

And people still wonder why our Holy Mother, Theotokos, warned us the final battle will be over the family.

“His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.” (Luke 1:50)

If the evil one, our our own selfish will, breaks the chain of knowledge of the Lord and his laws in families we become a lost people. Hence the call to evangelize each generation as if it were the first should be engrained in every Catholic's (and Christian) heart, mind and soul.

ehw

We Must Turn Back To God's Law

The world sits in darkness and mass confusion, because we attempt to rewrite the rules of God’s Law to suit ourselves. While the world can fall into despair and sin en mass, it can only be saved one soul at a time.

Let us turn back to God’s Law together. Unite our souls with Christ, and not stay isolated in our own reality. Preach the Gospel as Jesus intended, not as we desire to hear it. Live the Gospel as Jesus directs us to, not as we want to live it. Accept God’s Love, and share it with the rest of creation.

This is all we need to do to change our souls, our family’s and then the world to effect God’s will on earth.

-ehw

This photo is from adoration on Friday.

Most Important Lesson This Year: The Bible

In a year of trail by evil, came a year of growth in things which could only be sent by God. For this I am extremely thankful today, even if in getting here required quite a bit of blind faith and dry spiritual moments. I learned along the way, this is exactly what the Lord planned out for all of us at the dawn of time. To learn this again I had to actually get to know THE SOURCE of God’s plan.

Ninety-Nine days into the year I heard about and clicked on “Bible in a Year with Father Mike Schimtz featuring Jeff Cavins (The Bible in a Year Archives - Ascension Press Media). This is a podcast, and is timed to match perfectly to the average American’s 21 minute commute to work (ok mine is longer but I can do this and a Rosary). Prior to this year I read big chunks of the Bible, but not the whole Bible in a guided tour. Jeff Cavins, a former Protestant minister and Catholic Revert. arranged this so the lessons and timelines just flow naturally.

It just so happened I rolled into Kings, and the story of David and his clan. From humble beginnings, to soaring heights, and crushing catastrophes of their own sinful makings these Kins taught me to see the world around us in a new light. Then we rolled through the rest of the Bible and it all just clicked into place. As the year progressed I could see how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament, and how as the young church spread it too faced persecution like we have today from a state fearful of God’s saving graces.

I’d read or heard many of the stories before, but the blessing of being lead by a Catholic Priest willing to discuss the hard truths of the faith was just what I needed. Frankly, Father Schimtz reminds me of a Catholic Priest version of Mike Rowe. Cavin’s deep knowledge of the Bible and the Promised Land guide the reader into understanding the land and culture the people at the time of the Bible’s writing and original unfolding. It is reminiscent of Scott Hahn’s approach, if you’re a fan of his like me, you’ll feel right at home.

In the story of son’s and daughters I could see our world’s struggles today are merely repeated pains caused by our fallen nature. I could also appreciate the words of a Baptist believer friend of mine who said “I believe in God because the Bible has over 70 authors spread out over five thousand years and is the most consistent document written.” The Bible came our of oral tradition, so the audio version of the book actually ties you into its history in ways a typefaced read does not.

From all these lessons, I received one great gift this advent on a Saturday morning at Adoration as I detoured home from an overnight shift. As I looked at Jesus in the Eucharist, my mind filled the church with saints saying mass and the people offering up their prayers and suffering in solidarity. I could see the catacombs, great churches, and field masses on jeeps in battlefields. I could feel the presence of the Old Testament saints coming to mass, their previous offerings pious but still, drawn to the spiritual delights of Christ in the Eucharist in heaven.

This moment humbled me, and left me feeling a yearning to be with all those visions of people who truly believed and offered up their lives to God, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Then I realized, the Eucharist is the greatest time capsule in history. A real life science fiction moment of singularity for the entire physical universe, in all times, and into the spiritual realm of heaven residing in one tiny piece of Christ’s heart sitting there before me. It calls each of us to go through the trials of fire here on earth, to be with him forever.

The most important lesson of the year, is the one I’ve known about and tried to follow my whole life. The Bible sets the law, reminds me of my strengths, counsels me through failures, offers salvation if I confess and do the works of repentance, and finally shows me the one point in the physical world where it all comes together for all eternity. So I share this lesson with you, and pray you’ll use whatever tool you need to for completing the mission of: “Know, serve and love God with all your heart, mind and soul to one day be with him in Heaven.”

Servant of God Emil J. Kapaun…Pray for us in the fight to come. (Father Emil J. Kapaun | Official Home Page (frkapaun.org))

-ehw

Will We Let the Angels In to Guide Us Away from Dread?

Our first day of nice weather this fall…it should be glorious moment of family adventure. Instead the world is full of dread. People get cancelled if they do not toe “the line” on anything decried by the government. Thousands of us face termination because we will not submit to a medical procedure, which we find in and of itself is revolting towards the Lord. The victims will not just be the workers, but the entire family. Autocrats seek complete submission to their every social, medical and financial order. Businesses gleefully comply with government orders, to keep their good contracts and most favored status under whatever new admin or bill is moving through the government. The groupthink crowd looks down in fear, and moves right along staying with the supposed safety of the masses.

I started this blog to find and share bits of God’s Glory through photos and words. I wanted to help people see the goodness of the God in the world, so they could have encouragement in a world of dread. I want to share God’s hope for each of us to move towards him for all eternity. I want to help people understand, the first step in all of this is to open our hearts and minds to the Lord.

When you look at the world today realize this most basic fact about God’s relationship with each of us; and how it is supposed to reflect on a well ordered society. In the Catholic faith, we know dogmatically God could but never will force us to love him. For true love is about willingly giving of self for another. He loved us so much, he sent his only Son to show us the hard and narrow road to heaven by dying a horrible death.

The opposite of such Caritas is the fascist oppression we see permeating the world today. Leaders and countries which lead in such a manner are not doing so in accordance with Catholic morality behind them. I have no problem telling this to any of the weak bishops of this world, that in their weakness to the world they permit great evil to fall on their flocks. They will be held accountable one day, just as I will be. However the devil dances with greater glee on those anointed as decedents of the Apostles who fail to act as such. Woe to those who do not listen to their Guardian Angels.

So today, on what should be a glorious day, I ask anyone who reads this to be quiet and let their Guardian Angel speak to them. Look at the world, and see where they point us personally to peacefully walk with our neighbors as Jesus did. Look and question anyone demanding submission of will to the princes of this earth. One way leads to salvation and eternal peace through pain here on earth. One way leads to a life of ease and temporal peace, but in the end turns our souls to dust.

Capture His Glory in your life, and release it right back out to Glorify the Lord. It will lead us away from dread, and into heaven forever.

Moments in the Light

Simply why I shoot is to catch moments of light…which can be timelessly remembered.

-ehw

Pure Moment of Love

Just a moment of love I wanted forever.

Desert Flowers on the River

A few desert flower beauties….along the canal in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Self Portrait

Took a self portrait the other day…

The image helped me remember how our children are so often…for better or worst…a reflection of our successes, failures, fears, virtues and vices…

Let us pray we do well by them!

-ehw

Family Ties

There are great times…and there are trying times. Lets pray today we work through God’s directions to love our family properly….so we build up the great graces needed to work through the trying times when they come.

-ehw

A Little Bit of Spring

Just a little spring popping in the yard.

I Am Peter’s Shadow

    Year after year as a young man I wondered time and time again, “Why would the Lord pick Peter?  He failed in the hour of need! He was boastful and hot headed!  Then he sinned by inaction no different than Adam!”  After gaining many a grey hair, all I can think of is how I am Peter’s Shadow! 

    Peter was the first Apostle to receive and act on the gift of Faith by telling the Lord he was the Messiah.  Peter wanted to protect the Lord but was called a Devil for trying to avoid the Lord’s death in Jerusalem.  Peter wanted no part in the Lord humbling himself to wash his feet, but when corrected displayed exuberance in saying wash my whole body!  Peter struck the High Priest’s slave in the garden with Christ, but denied Christ three times in the garden of man.  Peter did not come to the foot of the Cross, but ran with abandon to the empty tomb.

    I now recognize Peter is the disciple who’s spirit and temperament is closest to mine.  I can get exuberant, but make mistakes just as brilliantly.  I see the world in ways most others do not, but it does not mean I am always right or can even explain myself!  I know the Lord is my God, but in sinning abandon our Lord in both dark of night and light of the day. 

    This Good Friday, as I attend Stations of the Cross, I will recognize myself as Peter’s Shadow on Good Friday.  I know in my life I often abandoned Christ on the road to Golgotha.  I know when I refuse to participate in Christ’s suffering, I hurt Christ and his mystical body even more!

    So I will do as Peter did after Christ died.  See Peter was hiding in that Upper Room Easter morning, but it does not mean he was slothful!  Peter assembled the Apostles over the two days Christ spent in the tomb.  In that Upper Room he was feeding Christ’s shepherds!  It might have been in fear and sheepishly, but he began doing part of his vocation.  He just needed a cue card for his next steps on when and where to re-enter the world!

   As Peter’s Shadow this weekend I will take a page from his life.  I will look at the family God placed in my care, memorialize my failings since I will see them again at my judgement, ask the Lord for forgiveness, and get back to work serving those in my care while I await the Lord’s next command on Easter Morning.  I know the Lord will expect nothing less.

-ehw

Dying to Self this Lent

        It is Lent, and the Church uses it to call each of us to revisit the concept of dying to self for the glorification of God.  It is a direct challenge to how this world calls us to live for our own glory, and frankly our own survival.  Fighting through this challenge is reminiscent of Jacob’s wrestling with an Angel in Genesis 32, since we must fight through the night until daybreak against a foe whom we cannot best.

    In Genesis 32, Jacob prepares to meet his brother Esau. Esau had a reason to be upset with his younger brother.  Jacob’s theft of the birthright blessing justly caused bitterness between the brothers.  Yet Jacob knew the proper solution was to make peace with his brother when the morning light arose.  It would be the only way for each then live their lives the best they could without bitterness. 

The night plays tricks with our minds, in the darkness we can play out all types of scenarios.  We can walk through prideful, meek, balanced and hopeful solutions to all our problems.  In our own minds we craft the perfect solution, usually one in which we win through our brilliance over our foe.  When we awake though we have to face the real world.  Our brilliance of thoughts in the night suddenly pales in the face of the Wisdom of God’s word illuminated by the sunlight.

The Catechism teaches Jacob’s wrestling with the angel is symbolic of our struggle to preserve and remain faithful to prayer as we overcome temptation and grow in sancticy (CCC 409, 2573,2592,2725,2752).  When I read this story, I think of Jacob wrestling with his guardian angel through the night.  Jacob’s fidelity to God’s vision for his life and posterity goes up against his pride, fears and personal dreams the night before he faces a potential civil war with his brother.  When he finishes wrestling with the angel he gets a blessing, a new name, a painful thigh and reminder to follow God’s plan not his. 

This in many ways foreshadows our Lenten journey.  Before he tested his faith, Jacob sent his family ahead of himself.  He sent them through the water while he made his preparations after wrestling with an angel.  He then took up his crosslike challenge, and led his family to the to meet his brother.  When Jacob met his brother he bowed seven times, an act of submission.  He in essence offered himself up to Esau, and Esau gave him back his life in passage through the lands he dominated with his earthly power.  Jacob in turn went through the Esau’s territory, stayed on his own path, and lived as God called him to without civil war.

Before Jesus went to Jerusalem he sent the 72 disciples to clear the way.  Jesus prepared and prayed with his Apostles on his journey from Galilee.  Jesus bore the insults of the pious Jews of the times, whose birthright he stripped away with his birth.  The difference then was the pious Jews of Christ’s times did not give Jesus back his life.  Instead, they took Jesus life.  Through bowing his head on the cross, Jesus gave up his spirit to unlock the gates to our heavenly home.

        So here we stand at the drawing of the Lenten evening.  We too must cross through the waters of death in the morning to face a judgement.  As we wrestle with our conscience, may we die to self through resisting pride and selfishness with the courage of Jacob.  Let us fight all night long with valor so we may arise with a strong new name in the morning.  Let us all work towards this with faith and works to earn the name of Child of the Light, Faithful Disciple, and Saved by the Mercy of God when the light strikes our face at the end of this earthly life and heaven’s light touches our face.