When I was in the service in 1969, I was on leave in London and saw the play”Fiddler on the Roof” staring a British actor named Alfie Bass. The opening song was “Tradition”. This song set the theme for the moral of the play and in a way sets the theme for our reflection on today’s scripture.
Just reading Genesis 27 is extremely troubling. Issac was duped. Rebekah and Jacob pulled the wool over his eyes. Tradition said that the firstborn son was to inherit and become head of the household. Esau was the firstborn and tradition was that he should inherit and not Jacob. Esau seems from the reading to be a good person. Just reading this chapter it is hard to see the moral in this and God’s plan.
What our readings does not include is Genesis 25 which in a nut shell describes the circumstances where Esau sold his rights of the firstborn to his brother Issac for some stew because he was very, very hungry. In her pregnancy Rebekah was told by the Lord that Issac would inherit and it comes to a conclusion in our readings today. Esau much like a good portion of the world today only cared about his stomach and not the future. I am just as guilty of this as anyone. The thing I take away from this is repeated in other scripture. God looks at our hearts and not physical appearance. When Samuel choose Jesse’s son David, Samuel said that God looks in our hearts and not at physical appearance or strength. God looked in Esau’s and Jacob’s heart and choose Jacob.
Tradition is important but blessing our sons and daughters and the world around us is just as if not more important. In Genesis 12:1-3 “The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.”
This is a famous scripture and traditionally explains why Christians are so good-natured. They don’t want to curse someone whose curse may come back to haunt them. We are a people of blessings and our blessing will fill the earth. What a happy world this would be if everything we did was a blessing on someone else. This is only part of message of today’s scripture readings.
In the Gospel Matthew 9:17 “People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Tradition is great and has a purpose but just like in the Play “Fiddler on the Roof”, blessing our family and neighbors are the most important thing we can do as a Catholic today. Circumstances don’t always turn out the way we plan and even though Esau sold his inheritance to Jacob, he still expected the blessing from Issac. Why? Somehow the story of Rebekah and Jacob have another facet if it is taken as part of God’s plan.
Pray for blessings on our families and on all the leaders of the world, today. Our plans are not always God’s plan. The commercial on television in the United States says what is in your wallet, but God says what is in your heart.
God Bless you.
Bob Burford
Readings : Genesis 27:1-5, 15-29; Psalm 135:1B-3, 3-4,5-6; Matthew 9: 14-17
