Pope Benedict XVI: The Long Night of Struggle Ends In Self-Surrender

"The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer" (CCC # 2598).

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Vatican City (Catholic Online) -- During this Wednesday's general audience, before about 15,000 of the faithful, Pope Benedict XVI continued his catechesis on prayer, in which he spoke of the Patriarch Jacob and his struggle with the unknown man at the ford of the Jabbok. The Pope drew a comparison between Jacob's struggle with this man until "the break of dawn" (Gen. 32:25), and our own lives which are like a "long night of struggle and prayer," and which are "passed in the desire of and request for God's blessing."

Our Holy Father explained that the Bible describes Jacob as an astute man who obtains things through deception. At a certain point, Jacob sets out to return to his homeland and face his brother, Esau, whose firstborn birthrights he had stolen (see Gen. 27). While camped near the river, Jacob arises in the course of the night and crosses the ford. However, something unexpected happens: Jacob is suddenly attacked by an unknown man with whom he struggles until dawn. It appears there is no clear winner in the contest. We are temporarily left with the identity of Jacob's rival as a mystery. "Only at the end," remarked the Pope, "when the struggle is finished and that 'someone' has disappeared, only then will Jacob name him and be able to say that he had struggled with God."

Once the fight is over, Jacob informs his opponent that he will let him go only if he blesses him. While Jacob had previously defrauded Esau out of the first-born's blessing through deceit, he now demands a blessing "from the unknown man," said Benedict, "in whom he perhaps begins to see divine traits, but still without being able to truly recognize him. His rival, who seems restrained and therefore defeated by Jacob, instead of bowing to the Patriarch's request, asks his name.

"In the Biblical mentality," continued the Pope, "knowing someone's name entails a type of power because it contains the person's deepest reality, revealing their secret and their destiny. . . . This is why, when Jacob reveals his name, he is putting himself in his opponent's hands. It is a form of surrender, a complete giving over of himself to the other. . . . In this gesture of surrender, Jacob also becomes the victor because he receives a new name, together with the recognition of his victory on the part of his adversary."

The name "Jacob," explained the Pope, "recalls the verb 'to deceive' or 'to supplant.' After the struggle, in a gesture of deliverance and surrender, the Patriarch reveals his reality as a deceiver, a usurper, to his opponent. The other, who is God, however, transforms this negative reality into a positive one. Jacob the deceiver becomes Israel. He is given a new name as a sign of his new identity . . . the mostly likely meaning of which is 'God is strong, God wins.'

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"When, in turn, Jacob asks his rival's name," continued the Pope, "he refuses to say it but reveals himself in an unmistakable gesture, giving his blessing. . . . This is not a blessing obtained through deceit but one given freely by God, which Jacob can now receive because, without cunning or deception, he gives himself over unarmed, accepts surrender and admits the truth about himself."

Christian Prayer Is An Act Of Self-Surrender

The concept of admitting the truth about ourselves is articulated with stunning clarity in the story of the Prodigal Son. Here we find a son who arrogantly demands his share in his father's estate, only to travel far away and squander "his inheritance on a life of dissipation" (Luke 15:13). At the very beginning, the son misunderstands his relationship with his father, and even misunderstands the truth about himself: his own contingency and finitude, his ultimate dependence on the Other, the One who is the source of every good and every blessing. Once the son admits the truth about himself, he is then given the ability to return to his father.

With a humility that can be born only through the recognition of precisely who and what he is, the son says to his father, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son." But what is his father's response? He orders the servants: "Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found" (see Luke 15:21-24).

St. Luke records yet another parable of our Lord Jesus Christ which unveils the importance of admitting the truth about ourselves in prayer. We are presented with the Pharisee who is filled with pride, and, on the other hand, the tax collector who would not even raise his eyes to heaven. It is the tax collector who admits from the depths of his soul, in a type of naked and stark truthfulness, his desperate need of God. Our Lord Jesus leaves us with this message: "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (see 18:9-14).

To enter fruitfully into the world of prayer in communion with our Father it is necessary, as Pope Benedict explained, to give ourselves over entirely to God, surrender ourselves in abandonment and trust to Christ our Lord, and to fix our eyes carefully upon precisely who we are and who He is.

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that "humility is the foundation of prayer," and that "man is a beggar before God" (No. 2559). It is important to remember that it is the Holy Spirit who first reveals Christ to us, and it is Christ who first invites us to prayer, to drink from the well of his unfathomable love. Therefore even the initial urge to pray is a gift from God, something which we have received without merit, and which is given as an invitation to journey into our eternal end: an everlasting share in the divine life of God.

"If you knew the gift of God! The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him" (CCC No. 2560).

The Pope explained that, in the episode of the fight at the ford of Jabbok, "the people of Israel speak of their origin and outline the features of a unique relationship between God and humanity. This is why, as also affirmed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 'from this account, the spiritual tradition of the Church has retained the symbol of prayer as a battle of faith and as the triumph of perseverance.'

"Our entire lives," concluded the Holy Father, "are like this long night of struggle and prayer, passed in the desire of and request for God's blessing, which cannot be ripped away or won over through our strength, but must be received with humility from Him as a gratuitous gift that allows us, finally, to recognize the face of the Lord. And when this happens, our entire reality changes: we receive a new name and God's blessing."

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F. K. Bartels is a Catholic writer who knows his Catholic faith is one of the greatest gifts a man could ever have. He is a contributing writer for Catholic Online. Visit him also at catholicpathways.com

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