Prayer is like wrestling with God, pope says at audience

True prayer is like wrestling with God, Pope Francis said in his series of catechesis on the miracle of prayer at the weekly general audience livestreamed from the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican.

The story of Jacob who wrestled with God throughout the night is a reminder that God has a “blessing reserved for those who have let themselves be changed by him,” the pope said.

Reflecting on the story of Jacob from the book of Genesis in his main talk, the pope introduced Jacob as an “unscrupulous man” what we might call a “self-made” man.

The biblical account tells us about the rivalry in the difficult relationship Jacob had with his older brother Esau from the very beginning.

Jacob, through trickery obtains “the blessing and birthright” of the first born from his father Isaac. “It is only the first in a long series of ploys”

Jacob is seen obtaining what he desires through his own ingenuity who despite the odds “seems to succeed in every feat in his life.”

He is able to enrich himself and enter a promising marriage even after being forced to flee from his brother. “But something is missing,” Pope Francis added.

One day he sets out to his homeland to see his brother Esau whom he defrauded for an inheritance. On his return trip, Jacob encounters a stranger who grabs and wrestles with him.

After wrestling throughout the night, the stranger finally overcome Jacob by a strike to the hip.

He asks Jacob his name, then tells him, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel… for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

He refuses to tell Jacob his own name, but blesses him instead. “Jacob understands he has encountered God ‘face-to-face’.” the Pope said,

The pope said that Jacob ultimately enters the promised land with a limp, but also “with a new heart.”

Jacob use to trust in his own cunning, he was a man impervious to grace and resistant to mercy. “But God saved what was lost.”

Pope Francis, quoting from the Catechism, explained that “the symbol of prayer as a battle of faith and as the triumph of perseverance.”

When we are able to recognise our own weakness and “wrestle with God” through prayer, just like Jacob, we can finally receive “God’s blessing” and walk into the promised land, “vulnerable and wounded, but with a new heart.”

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