Daily Retreat 07/04/09

2009 Jul 4 Sat:Ordinary Weekday/ BVM/ Elizabeth of Portugal, mw/ Independence Day Gn 27:1-5. 15-29/ Ps 134(135):1b-2. 3-4. 5-6/ Mt 9:14-17 From today's readings:" When Esau went out into the country to hunt some game for his father, Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau that she had in the house, and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear....  Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!...  Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" Sibling Rivalry and Biblical Morality One of the clearest biblical doctrines of morality states that the ends DO NOT justify the means, that it is wrong to chose to do evil even if motivated by good intentions (cf. Romans 3:8).  And yet, this maxim is not always followed, even by some of the biblical heros! Isaac's younger son, Jacob, succeeded in robbing his older brother, Esau, of all of his prerogatives as the firstborn son.  Thus, it is Jacob who goes on to continue the biblical line of chosen patriarchs, while Esau and his descendants fade into obscurity.  Yet even though Esau is presented in the narrative as dim-witted and uncultured, he is not totally deprived of the reader's sympathy, and later prophets would even explicitly object to Jacob's deceit  (cf. Hosea 12:4 Jeremiah  9:3). So even if there's an acceptance or even implicit endorsement of his overall cunning and craftiness, Bible does not condone the reprehensible dishonesty of Jacob (and Rebekah!).  It is in fact in consequence of their scheming that the mother and son soon are definitively separated from each other.  As shall soon be shown, however, in spite of Jacob's clear sinfulness, God's Providence is not thwarted or derailed....