Climbing Jacob’s Ladder

Today’s first reading features an image that has captured the imagination of many people ever since—Jew, Christian and modern secular alike: Jacob’s ladder.

The situation is this: Jacob, having received his father Isaac’s principal blessing, is now on his way to a distant country. He is going to find a bride among his mother’s relatives. In addition to the regular anxieties that a solitary traveler might have had, he is worried that his brother Esau and his men might be out to harm him.

In the midst of all this, he has this marvelous dream of a ladder reaching to heaven! God’s messengers ascending and descending. God speaks to him, promising him the blessing He had bestowed on Abraham.

St. Climacus

Among the saints inspired by this image is St. John Climacus, a 7th-century monk who lived on Mt. Sinai. He wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, presenting the spiritual life as a progression of thirty rungs on a ladder. The disciple of Christ begins by detaching himself from the world. Then, practicing a series of renunciations of temporal goods and practices of many virtues. Of the last rung, where true charity is found, he exclaims: “I long to know how Jacob saw thee [charity] fixed above the ladder.”

St. Bonaventure

Secondly, St. Bonaventure, the great Franciscan bishop, wrote The Ascent of the Mind to God. His ladder only features six steps, but he, too, mentions ‘Jacob’s stair,’ and is clearly inspired by Jacob’s vision. His work emphasizes more our knowledge of God rather than holiness. We begin by sensing the material things of this world. And we end by considering the relationships of Father, Son and Holy Spirit with each other.

In the writings of both these saints, the lower rungs of the ladder represent natural virtues or understanding. As the person advances, the grace of God and the revelation of God become more and more prevalent. Both seem to describe a process which takes many years, or even a lifetime.

St. Francis de Sales

Further, in St. Francis de Sales’ explanation of Jacob’s ladder, there is more motion up and down the ladder. For him the two poles that support the steps are prayer and the sacraments. Prayer is our effort to seek the love of God. And the sacraments are God’s way of bestowing this love on us. We ascend the ladder by contemplation, by a prayer that seeks union with God. We descend the ladder to do good deeds in service to our neighbor.

One beautiful detail in today’s reading is how Jacob anoints the rock he had slept on at Bethel with oil. What a sublime symbol of Christ! Christ is the stone rejected by the builders which became the cornerstone. The stone at Bethel is anointed (and of course ‘Christ’ means ‘anointed one’ in Greek).

It is surely no accident that Jacob, on a future visit to Bethel to the shrine where he had had this vision, received the name ‘Israel’ from God. I hope that we remember Jacob’s dream in our darkest, most anxious moments of life. Sometimes it is in these bleak periods that God blesses us with the most comforting of His gifts.

[Readings: Gn 28:10-22a; Ps 91:1-2, 3-4, 14-15ab; Mt 9:18-26]