Our Stories

In today’s first reading we see that before Isaac dies he wants to give his final, solemn blessing to his heir. And whoever gets that blessing will be the heir. Rebekah, the mother, happens to overhear this conversation between Isaac and Esau, the firstborn. She is not happy because she wants the blessing to go to Jacob, her favourite son. She makes a plan to deceive her husband and reveals it to Jacob. Eventually, Jacob (helped by his mother Rebekah) deceives his father and his twin brother Esau to receive the blessing.

What Jacob did in deceiving his father and thereby cheating Esau out of Isaac’s deathbed blessing is condemned as blameworthy. But the lie or the deception that we have read today mysteriously serves God’s purpose; the free divine choice preferred Jacob to Esau.

This may not be an edifying story, but that may be well be our own stories. There may be many stories that are not so edifying in our lives. There may be occasions in our lives that have not been honest or truthful. But God can use all these occasions for his own glory. They can mysteriously serve God’s purpose if only we allow God into the picture.

Today’s gospel reading reports that John’s disciples wanted to know why Jesus was not fasting. Because, in their book, a Jew fasted and a pious Jew fasted more often. But Jesus did not measure religion by external actions like fasting or keeping other requirements of the law (such as washing hands before eating, etc). For him religion was a matter of the inner spirit as we see in his deeper interpretations of the Law during the Sermon on the Mount.

New wine is meant for new wineskins, and it is not meant for old wineskins. Merely changing the externals is like putting new wine into old wineskins. That would be a disaster! It would burst the wineskins, and the wine would be wasted.

Jesus’ teachings were like new wine or new cloth. They could not be fitted into old containers. People like the Pharisees were trying to fit Jesus’ teaching and his ideas into their ways of thinking. It would not work.

We are called today to change our attitudes, not merely the external observances. Without inner change our various prayer practices and devotions will not be useful or fruitful. Let us put more life, more love and more Jesus into our personal stories.