July 5 - Saturday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

(Gn.27:1-5,15-29;   Ps.135:1-6;   Mt.9:14-17)

 

“Pour new wine into new wineskins,

and in that way both are preserved.”

 

“Jacob.”  The name means “the supplanter”.  Here he supplants his twin brother, Esau, whose name means “red earth”.  Though born second, Jacob receives the blessing of the firstborn.  Of what significance is this supplanting, is this blessing of Jacob, who is to be “Israel”, and from whom the twelve tribes shall proceed?  Far more than some sibling rivalry, it shows the coming of the New Covenant of the spirit which shall supplant the Old of the flesh.

It is not the will of Isaac to bless Jacob; his love is for Esau – who before this time has forfeited his birthright to Jacob in order to feed his hungry belly.  But Isaac is blind.  He is blind because he, too, is a natural man, a man of the flesh seeking to feed his belly.  And so the Lord inspires Rebekah to intercede, to see that His will is accomplished.  Notice please the words of Isaac when Jacob comes to him dressed in the hairy skin of a beast and the clothes of Esau: “Although the voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s.”  Indeed, the voice is of the spirit; the skin he feels is of the flesh.  And the Word must go to the word, the Spirit to the spirit; and so it is Jacob who must receive the blessing, despite the will of Isaac. 

And how is Isaac brought to do the Father’s will?  He is deceived by his own preoccupation with the flesh, with the old wineskin.  Upon eating his fill, and drinking his fill of the old wine, he is blinded further.  And smelling the clothes of Esau he is inspired to pronounce his blessing.  But what Esau possesses in his clothes, Jacob holds in his spirit – this fragrance is that which rises to the nostrils of the Lord.  And it is His will which must be done.  He chooses the spiritual man.

And in our gospel, too, we see the blindness of the natural man in his preoccupation with the flesh.  John’s disciples, like the Pharisees – whose stomachs growl from fasts in which they find no blessing – looked jealously upon the disciples of Jesus, who do not have to endure the penance which is so tedious to these men removed from the Spirit.  But in Jesus is the blessing of the Spirit, reflected in God’s choosing of Jacob, here fulfilled in the sight of men whose eyes need yet to be opened to its grace. 

The new wine is of the Spirit of God, brothers and sisters; we drink it each day in the blood of Christ.  Let it not be poured into skins that yet look upon the world with eyes of flesh; rather, be made new as it calls you to be, and preserve your soul unto heaven.  It is the Spirit which gives life; the flesh is of no avail.

 

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O LORD, may the new wine of the Spirit be upon us

to bless us, always.

YHWH, you have chosen Jacob for yourself; you do what you will.  All goes well with Israel, for you have blessed him.  The man of the Spirit is your favored Son, while the man of the flesh finds his birthright gone.

Into new wineskins let your blessings be poured, O holy LORD.  Make us new in your presence this day that the blood shed by your Son may be our own.  Let us drink of this New Covenant, anointed by your Spirit, and we shall live forever in your sight, blessed as Jesus with whom we become one.

Praise you, LORD, mighty God!  Praised be to your holy NAME!  For all is done in your will, despite our many shortcomings.  You are great in Heaven and on earth and lead your chosen ones by your mercy.  Let us not take refuge in the things of the flesh but rejoice ever in the Holy Spirit, even on this day of fasting.