Dear Iconians, especially Mr.
Mathew!

It is very good to see that
people ask substantial questions to grow in our tradition and in our faith by
understanding our profound liturgical texts. What Mr. Mathew has asked, namely
how the rod of Jacob can depict the Holy Cross, is therefore, also of greater
importance.



The quoted song:
“Yaakkobaamajapaalanavan

Thazhuki vanangiyathaam dandam

Masihaayaam nammudeyidayan

Mruthiye vanangikkolacheithu

Paathaalatthe dhooliccha

Sleeba thannude drushtaantham”



This song refers to Genesis 30:25-43. Jacob has served many years his maternal
uncle Laban, who in turn, according to Jacob himself, 'has cheated him ten
times' (cf. Gen 31:7). Therefore, Jacob wanted his share and wanted to take his
family his own so that what he sweats would belong to him and not to a person
with vicious interests. Jacob's deal with Laban was that among all the sheep
and goats, those with speckle or spots and black lambs shall belong to him and
those without speckle, spots and black color shall belong to Laban. It has to
be kept in mind that initially those with spots, speckle and black color were
very less in number that Laban found the idea good and agreed to the deal
without much debate or discussion. Next thing to do for Laban was to separate
the ones, male and female, with spots, speckle and black color from among the
herd. Thereafter Laban entrusted the spotted, speckled and black herd to his
sons and asked Jacob to take care of his herd. Moreover he kept a distance of
three days journey between the two flocks, namely his and that of Jacob. This
ensured that there is no question of a mingling between the two herds. It is
very clear from this action as well that he never counted upon his son in law’s
integrity and honesty and mistrusted him always. In fact, Jacob himself says:
‘every
one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs,
if found with me, shall be counted as stolen’ (Gen 30:33)!

Now it was for Jacob to see that there are a good
number and enough sheep, goats and lambs with spot, speckle and black color for
him. Jacob devised a technology, which can be compared to the modern genetic
engineering in its utmost raw form though, if wanted. When healthy sheep and
goats of Laban’s herd come to drink water they see fresh rods of poplar, almond
and plane with peeled streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods. He set
the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the
watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when the
came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the rods and the flocks produced
young ones that were striped, speckled, and spotted. Jacob separated the ones
with spot, speckle or stripe and the black ones and did not let them mingle
with those of Laban’s. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding Jacob
laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the flock that they might breed
among the rods and for the feebler of the flocks he did not lay them there. In
short the feebler became that of Laban and stronger that of Jacob. Jacob grew
in wealth and the Lord blessed him.

It is here the above mentioned
song comes into consideration, namely, when the sheep, goats and the lambs that
were seeing the striped rod and breeding while drinking water they produced the
striped young ones. The striped rod is seen as the symbol of the Holy Cross by
the fathers to say that whenever humans, who belonged to the adversary or
traitor, here in comparison with Laban and whom Jacob depicts as a cheater
(Gen31: 7), come to water in the troughs, namely for baptism, they see the Holy
Cross and they are born again with stripes, speckle and spots, namely belonging
to the herd of the saved ones, namely that of Jacob’s. Spot, speckle and stripe
is seen here as symbol of life. Death has no power over them for there is life
in them, which is the medicine to defeat death, the faith that is initiated
through the salvific Cross. Thus the Holy Cross has emptied the hades and moved
the souls in bondage to the predicament of happiness and freedom. Just as Jacob
put the peeled rods to put away the flocks from the cheater, the Lord put the
Holy Cross, to mean His own death and resurrection, to trample and kill death.
The Lord has plundered the hades and the proceeds belonged to Holiness. We sing
in the maneetho of St. Severus at the beginning of the Holy Qurbana also that
the Lord has trampled death by His death and killed it. The same idea is
reproduced here as well.

There is a psychological
aspect as well to be mentioned here. The environment and thoughts of the
animals when they were breeding visibly influenced the young ones that they
produced. If prayer, good spiritual environment and a positive atmosphere can
accompany similar situations, good offspring are the outcome. Moreover, when
one comes to baptism the prayers and goodwill of the ones, who bring persons to
baptismal font, also count very much. We shall think about the men, who carried
their paralytic friend to Jesus (Mk 2:1-12).

For those, who appreciate only
a literal understanding of the biblical texts like the one in discussion here,
expositions
on aforesaid line is meaningless and have no great value. However, our fathers,
who have primarily been trained in the Alexandrine line of thought, have found
such kind of allegorical expositions very much worthwhile and they enjoyed
keeping on finding similar ideas time and again out of the Holy Writing. It is
only thus the tree that donned the lamb, the rock that flowed water and fish
that gave the coin could depict the Mother of God, St. Mary. Unless we tune
ourselves to the same frequency to which the fathers have been employing to
transmit their thoughts, all that we hear would be simply babbling. If we can
find a good receiver and fine tune ourselves to the frequency of the fathers,
Orthodox understanding of faith will become very much interesting and
challenging the intellect in a very positive sense. Only then the rod of Jacob
can depict the Holy Cross.

Prayerfully,

Fr. Dr. Jacob Mathew, Orlando, Florida