“Until You Bless Me” by Melanie Rigney

By Alexander Louis Leloir [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot

After (he had taken his household) across the stream and had brought over all his possessions, Jacob was left there alone. Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled. The man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me." (Genesis 32:24-27)

In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord. (Psalm 17:15a)

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

Piety

Lord, instill in me the faith that You will see me through my struggles.

Study

It’s easy to turn our backs on God—in the short term. Life has a way of buffeting us about, of illness and disasters and disappointments happening to us or those we love for no discernible earthly reason.

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

Things go all right for a while when we turn away. Oh, sure, it seems weird that Sunday mornings come and go with no Mass, that what was our morning or evening prayer time instead becomes consumed with anger and regret and depression. But we’re still getting by, and it can almost feel good at times to tell God that you and He are finished.

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

And then comes that day, months or years or decades down the road, when we realize that truly, there is no substitute for faith when it comes to getting through this life. Things might not make sense with God all the time, but without Him, nothing makes sense.

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

And it is in that moment, the moment that we grudgingly or fearfully ask for forgiveness and seek His renewed blessing that we realize He never did let go, much as we thought He had.

And neither had we.

Action

Where are you wrestling with God or one of His angels? Hold on to Him… and your faith.