Search This Blog

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Esau's Generositiy

Saturday in the First Week in Ordinary Time has a letter to the Corinthians by Pope Saint Clement I.  I read:
God's blessing must be our objective, and the way to win it our study...
Jacob had the humility to leave his native land on account of his brother, and go and serve Laban.  He was given the twelve tribes
of Israel.
Really?  Clement, really?  Do you think it was humility or fear that was the impetus that drove Jacob away from his home?  Gen. 27: 41.

I have always wondered about Esau.  Scripture doesn't portray a flattering picture of him.  He's impetuous.  So?  Isn't Peter?  But God doesn't choose to favor Esau, as He does Peter.  I choose to think that Esau trusts in God.  No, scripture doesn't support my thesis, but how else to explain that a man as macho as scripture depicts Esau doesn't kill Jacob?

 Esau obviously doesn't hold grudges.  Maybe Esau's generosity is supposed to be an example for us.  Forgive those who have wronged you.

It's Esau who God wants us to emulate, not Jacob.  Esau is the lovable one, not Jacob.  It's Esau who you would want as a friend, not Jacob.  

No comments:

Praying from the Heart

 The book I chose for my Lenten reading was Inner Life A Fellow Traveler's Guide to Prayer, by David Torkington.  I finished it this Sun...