Growing up in Florida in the early 1960s, one of the staples of Saturday television programming was “Championship Wrestling from Florida” with Gordon Solie as host and play-by-play announcer. The show was filled with heroes and villains and served as a televised morality play for me and my friends in our formative pre-teen years. There was mystery, intrigue, and suspense as we sat enthralled wondering if good would triumph over evil. Gordon Solie’s voice was the siren’s call luring me into a world not my own.

These days the “siren’s call” is no longer attuned to professional wrestling, but focused on the call of God’s Word. Today’s first reading, Genesis 32:24–33, is the biblical “Championship Wrestling.” It is a passage which recounts the mysterious encounter between  Jacob, son of Issac, and an unnamed being who wrestles with him through the night. This passage is rich in its theological, literary, and symbolic complexity.