Commentaria in Genesim
“If sickness comes upon us, let us not be saddened, because it profits us for destroying the desires of the body. If we lose our eyes, let us not bear it heavily, because we have lost an instrument of pride. If we have become deaf, let us not grieve, because we have lost a vain hearing; let us give thanks: for as the sickness of the body is cured by a great and strong medicine, so by the sickness of the body the vices of the heart are blunted. If you are iron, you lose the rust through the fire of tribulation; if gold, you are made more splendid and pure: wherefore the holy Fathers always desired to be in infirmity.”
In the same place Polemon, companion of Blessed Pachomius, when he was gravely afflicted with pains of the spleen, and was asked by the brothers to allow some remedy to be applied, answered: “If the martyrs of Christ, some torn in pieces, some beheaded, some burned by fires, yet to the end bravely endured for the faith: why should I, yielding to small pains, impatiently cast away the rewards of patience, and in desire of this present life vainly dread momentary afflictions?”
In the same place it is read of Didymus (who was blind for eighty years, and yet most versed in Holy Scripture, whence St. Jerome calls him his seer), that being asked by St. Anthony whether he grieved that he lacked eyes, and he did not deny it, he heard from Anthony: “I marvel that a prudent man should grieve at the loss of that which ants and fleas have, and should not rather rejoice in the possession of that which only the Saints and Apostles have merited: for it is much better to see with the spirit than with the flesh.”
Life ought to be a continual meditation on death.
Why did Isaac ask venison of Esau? First reason.
of sin can fall, than those who by sight alone, through concupiscence, can send men into the destruction of hell.”
Hence Blessed Peter, Abbot of Clairvaux, when through the violence of disease he had lost one eye, said, one-eyed: “One of my enemies I have escaped, and I fear more from the one that remains than from the one lost.” Hence also some philosophers put out their own eyes, that the mind might not be drawn away, but, gathered wholly together, might be free for contemplation; and we read that the faithful, such as St. Audomar, Aquilinus and others, asked blindness of God and obtained it. St. Pigmenius, a Roman priest, blind, meeting Julian the Apostate, when he heard from him: “I give thanks to the gods, O Pigmenius, that I see you,” answered: “I give thanks to my God that I do not see you.” With so strong a mind therefore he bore blindness, as he despised the tyrant. Afterwards, crowned with martyrdom, he began to see what eye hath not seen; and to hear what ear hath not heard; and to understand what hath not entered into the heart of man.
2. THOU SEEST THAT I AM OLD, AND KNOW NOT THE DAY OF MY DEATH.—See how early, for 43 years, Isaac premeditates his death, awaits it daily as uncertain, and prepares himself and all his affairs for it. By his deed therefore he teaches us that our life ought to be nothing else than a meditation on death, as Plato used to say. For death is certain, and certain to come upon us; but its day and hour are uncertain. Hear Horace, Ode 3, book II:
We are all driven to one place: the urn of all is shaken, sooner or later the lot will come forth, and put us in the boat for eternal exile.
3. AND WHEN THOU HAST TAKEN SOME VENISON, MAKE ME SAVOURY MEAT THEREOF.—Hebrew: make me matammim, that is, tasty dishes, namely dishes of more delicate food, which delight the taste; for this day of the son’s blessing was auspicious, joyful and solemn, and therefore to be celebrated with a glad and pleasant feast. So Lipomanus.
You will ask: Why did Isaac ask of Esau flesh of game from hunting, rather than of fowls or lambs, since he had these at home to hand, before he would bless him? I answer first, because Isaac was accustomed to the eating of game, which Esau brought him from hunting, as is clear from chapter xxv, verse 28, and consequently was more nourished and delighted by it; second, because he wished Esau to dispose himself to receive the blessing through this obedience and service of hunting: so Thomas Anglicus; third, because Isaac, unknowing, was moved by God to send Esau out hunting, that meanwhile Jacob might forestall Esau and snatch the blessing from him: for God had decreed to prefer Jacob to Esau in the birthright.
Tropologically, Isaac taught here that those who give spiritual things may demand temporal things, namely priests and pastors who teach, pray and bless the people, and who ought to be fed by the people.
7. BEFORE THE LORD—the Lord seeing, hearing, being invoked, assenting and inspiring. So Oleaster, Pererius and others. See here how wonderful God is in fulfilling His works and promises: Jacob could hope for nothing less than to be blessed, since his father had decreed to bless Esau, and yet the blessing fell to Jacob himself. On the contrary, Esau was never more sure of receiving the blessing than while his father so spoke to him; and yet then most of all he lost it. Learn therefore to trust in God, though all things adverse befall: learn to believe in hope against hope.
11. I AM SMOOTH—hairless, not hairy like Esau.
13. UPON ME BE THIS CURSE—not that Rebecca truly wished to take upon herself for her son the curse and punishment of the father, as St. Chrysostom holds; but she speaks so because she was secure of a happy outcome: for she knew that God had so promised, chap. XXV, verse 23, as if to say: In vain you fear your father’s anger, there is no danger from it; I pledge myself, nay if you hesitate and doubt, I will take all the anger upon myself. So Theodoret.
Where note first, in Rebecca an unshaken faith in the word of God saying: “The elder shall serve the younger;” second, she herself instructs her son to ask the blessing, judging he would be happy if blessed by his father, and he a holy man: other mothers bring up their sons to vanities and sins; third, although she knew her husband erred in that he wished, against the will of the Lord, to bless the elder son, yet she does not quarrel with him, does not resist by force, but secretly provides that the blessing fall to him whom God had destined; fourth, she takes care in every way that the aged father not perceive the deception and so be troubled; fifth, she is dutiful toward her aged husband, in preparing for him the foods which he gladly ate; sixth, she prudently corrects Jacob, in order to soothe Esau’s anger.
Tropologically, how parents ought to love their children equally, and not prefer one to the other, or if they prefer, compensate it in another way, St. Ambrose teaches from this affection of Isaac toward Esau, and of Rebecca toward Jacob, book II De Jacob, chap. ii: “Receive, he says, a good contest between parents. Let the mother bring affection, the father judgment: let the mother incline with tender piety toward the younger, the father keep toward the elder the honour of nature; let him honour more, her love more; let the one compensate what the other diminishes.”
14. HE BROUGHT—the two kids which his mother had asked: not that the father was so robust, and of so great a meal, as to consume two kids, as Procopius holds, but because from two kids she intended to cut off the more delicate parts and offer them to the father. So Diodorus and Abulensis.
God wonderful in His counsels.
Morally, St. Ambrose, book II De Jacob, chap. ii: “He conquered, he says, who was preferred by the oracle; diligence conquered slowness, gentleness hardness, while the one seeks a wild prey by rough hunting, the other the dishes of gentle ways.”
15. VERY GOOD—Hebrew chamudot, that is, desirable; Septuagint, beautiful: whence the mother kept them in a chest among sweet spices. That they were perfumed is clear from verse 27.
Allegorically, the robe of Esau, that is prophecy, the priesthood and the Scripture of the Old Testament, was transferred from the Jews to Jacob, that is, to Christians.
16. AND THE LITTLE SKINS OF THE KIDS—that Jacob might seem to be Esau, who was hairy.
AND WRAPPED ABOUT HIS HANDS—in the manner of gloves: for otherwise Jacob had to use his hands, and bring the food with them to his father, and was obliged to serve him.
Allegorically, Jacob is Christ, who puts on the skins of kids, that is, takes our sins upon Himself, that He might expiate them. So St. Augustine, book Against Lying, and Prosper, part I of the Predictions, chap. XXI.
AND COVERED THE BARE OF HIS NECK—the softness and smoothness of the neck. So the Hebrew.
18. WHO ART THOU?—For Jacob’s voice raised doubt and scruple in Isaac, so that he was uncertain whether the speaker was Jacob or Esau, and therefore asks: Who art thou?