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Daily Reflections

Daily Scripture, July 8, 2025

Scripture:

Genesis 32:23-33
Matthew 9:32-38

Reflection:

Jacob sent his wives, 11 children and others of his party with all his possessions, across the Jabbok River.  He stood alone on the other side of that river, alone in the deepest darkness of night.

In dread, he awaited the arrival of his twin brother Esau, who despised him for his deceptions.  Jacob knew that Esau was approaching with his army to seek revenge on him.

All his life, Jacob has been a man imbued with conflict.  Jacob and Esau were twin brothers.  Esau, however, was born first.  Jacob was born moments later, grasping at Esau’s heel as though attempting to pull him back, allowing Jacob to emerge first from their mother’s womb.  That is why he was named Jacob.  In the Hebrew, Yaakov, or Jacob, means the back of the foot, the heel.  It also means the one who deceives, the trickster.  That was Jacob.

The infant Jacob grabbed at Esau’s heel because it is the first-born becomes the heir to the father’s properties, possessions, wealth, and would eventually become the head of the extended family’s tribe.

Jacob’s grasping of Esau’s heel defined his life.  His modus operandi was always to grab the heel, to sneak from behind to deceive and get his way.  When Esau reached the age of maturity, his father, the aging, and nearly blind Isaac, was ready to give him his blessing as head of the tribe.  However, Jacob, with his mother’s help, deceived Isaac into believing Jacob was Esau. 

As a result, Jacob received his father’s blessing, and causing a bitter enmity with Esau.

Jacob now stood alone in his midnight hour, dreading the approaching Esau and his army.

Then, something strange happens.  “Jacob was left there alone.  Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.”  Literally, the Hebrew reads that some “ish” wrestled with him until the break of dawn. 

This word, Ish, has at least two meanings.  Ish can mean man.  In fact, the Book of Genesis refers to Jacob as “ish.”  But Ish can mean Angel of God.

The question we are left with then is which meaning are we supposed to ascribe to the phrase “some man,” some Ish?  Is it some mysterious man?  Or is it the Angel of God?

Perhaps the answer is both.

As Jacob stood alone in his spiritual darkness, all the deception and trickery Jacob had inflicted on his brother, and others throughout his life now returned to haunt him like a nightmare. 

He wrestled with that nightmare, with his conscience, and there were no wives, no children, no wealth to distract him.

Jacob wrestled with Ish, the man, that man, himself.  Who was he?  What was his true identity?  All his life, Jacob was no more than a false image of his twin brother Esau. 

All his life, Jacob wanted to be first, like Esau.  He could do this only by deceiving others and by deceiving himself.

Jacob wrestled with Ish, the Angel of God.  In the end, it was with God with whom Jacob had to contend with, wrestle with.

Have you ever found yourself utterly alone in your own darkness?  With whom have you wrestled?

Is it with Ish, yourself with whom you are wrestling?  Many of us do a lot of wrestling with Ish. 

I have. 

In my faith, my doubts, my questions, my fears, I have felt alone, standing on one side of the river, while my family of faith stands at the far side of the river.

In my darkness, I have wrestled with my physical limitations, which are really nothing more than the natural progression of age.  And yet, I have struggled with this stage of my life.

Have you been there?  Are you there now, perhaps in your illness, your grief at the loss of a loved one, in your marital difficulties?  We each wrestle with Ish in our own way

Sounds rather gloomy, doesn’t it?  Where then does hope lie on this side of the river?

Jacob and Ish hold the key to that question.

You see, even though today’s narrative says Jacob “prevailed” over Ish, it doesn’t mean Jacob defeated God.  No.  Nor did God defeat Jacob.  Winning and losing was never the point of this struggle.  The point was that Jacob refused to stop struggling.  Jacob did not quit.  He did not run away.  Nor did God.

Therein lies the hope for us.  These struggles and challenges will certainly come our way.  We will have to wrestle with Ish.  However, it is in that place of our struggle that Ish, God encounters us, wrestles with us.  God will never quit on us.  Nor should we quit on God – or ourselves.

And there is the Good News.  At the break of dawn, Jacob, as he had done by trickery years before, now begged for a blessing.  Jacob received several blessings.

–God, Ish, gave Jacob a new name, a new beginning, a new man: His name was now Israel, one who wrestles with God.

–And Jacob, that is Israel, walked out of his darkness and into the dawn with a limp.

Our struggle with God and ourselves, however, comes at a cost.  We walk away with a limp.  It is the limp – physical or spiritual, or both, that life will inevitably inflict on us.

And yet, that is the best news.  That limp, your limp and mine is the unmistakable sign that God has transformed us to be more authentically ourselves, more like God.

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Daily Scripture, November 18, 2013

Scripture: 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 Luke 18:35-43 Reflection: Today’s first reading speaks to me of those times in my own life when the going got tough and I » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 17, 2013

Scripture: Malachi 3:19-20a 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 Luke 21:5-19 Reflection: As we come closer to the end of the Church liturgical year, our readings have more and more to do with » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 20, 2013

Scripture: 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31 Luke 19:11-28 Reflection:  In the midst of the indescribable horror of seeing her seven sons mercilessly slain by the tyrant king because they would not » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 16, 2013

    Scripture: Widsom 18:14-16; 19:6-9 Luke 18:1-8     Reflection: The Need to Pray with Faith God’s call to fidelity is a call to remember; and a call to » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 15, 2013

Feast of St. Albert the Great Scripture: Wisdom 13:1-9 Luke 17:26-37 Reflection: I often sit in our small third floor chapel with large picture windows that take in the San » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 13, 2013

Scripture: Wisdom 6:1-11 Luke 17:11-19 Reflection: Faith is central to Christianity. It is a fundamental feature of the spiritual life. Yet faith is often misunderstood as an assent to doctrinal » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 12, 2013

Scripture: Wisdom 2:23-3:9 Luke 17:7-10 Reflection: In today’s Gospel we read that no one would expect a master to ask a servant to sit at the table and serve him, » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 11, 2013

  Scripture: Wisdom 1:1-7 Luke 17:1-6       Reflection: Good News in Jesus’ Alliteration Jesus must love alliteration.  He uses it so effectively in today’s Gospel.  His message is » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 7, 2013

Scripture: Romans 14:7-12 Luke 15:1-10 Reflecton: Things just kept getting worse. Fights were breaking out much more regularly and what should have been a nourishing respite in the school day » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 10, 2013

Scripture: 2 Micah 7:1-2, 9-14 2Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 Luke 20:27-38 or 20:27, 34-38 Reflection: I have talked with many atheists who do not believe in eternal life, as well as people » Continue Reading.

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