RECONCILIATION
Genesis 27:11 “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.”
I imagine you are probably wondering where is the reconciliation in that passage which is the beginning of a deception between twins who came from the same womb but who were totally different.
In 1962, when I was a teenager thinking about being a Priest, my parents came back from New York City where they had seen a satirical review from England called, “Beyond the Fringe.” They brought me back a cast recording and I played it almost wearing it out and laughing heartily. One skit was by Alan Bennett playing a clueless Anglican Cleric preaching an aimless sermon with pointless anecdotes on that above passage. It was a stitch and it was the beginning of my turning against the idea of Holy Orders. I never wanted to be such a fool and here was my worst nightmare. I memorized and did the skit at after play cast parties, making fun of clergy aspirations as a way of divorcing myself from my call of which I feared and suspected I was inadequate.
My reconciliation came about eighteen years later in 1980 when I decided to accept God's continuing call; I embraced the twin of myself which I had so distanced from myself. I risked being mocked and derided, seen as a “fool for Christ” as Paul spoke to the Corinthians, the butt of the joke, from the “wise of the world.” There comes a time in our lives when we don't need to waste energy and precious time trying to impress others. God gave us each a life which we are to live faithfully as the one created by a loving God.
Father Tom Wilson+
Genesis 27:11 “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.”
I imagine you are probably wondering where is the reconciliation in that passage which is the beginning of a deception between twins who came from the same womb but who were totally different.
In 1962, when I was a teenager thinking about being a Priest, my parents came back from New York City where they had seen a satirical review from England called, “Beyond the Fringe.” They brought me back a cast recording and I played it almost wearing it out and laughing heartily. One skit was by Alan Bennett playing a clueless Anglican Cleric preaching an aimless sermon with pointless anecdotes on that above passage. It was a stitch and it was the beginning of my turning against the idea of Holy Orders. I never wanted to be such a fool and here was my worst nightmare. I memorized and did the skit at after play cast parties, making fun of clergy aspirations as a way of divorcing myself from my call of which I feared and suspected I was inadequate.
My reconciliation came about eighteen years later in 1980 when I decided to accept God's continuing call; I embraced the twin of myself which I had so distanced from myself. I risked being mocked and derided, seen as a “fool for Christ” as Paul spoke to the Corinthians, the butt of the joke, from the “wise of the world.” There comes a time in our lives when we don't need to waste energy and precious time trying to impress others. God gave us each a life which we are to live faithfully as the one created by a loving God.
Father Tom Wilson+
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