On Touching Jesus and Jacob's Wrestling with God

On Touching Jesus
Look at the miracle narratives in the Gospels (and Acts). The narratives are theological constructs written by the authors. Sure, they are based on the historical experience with Jesus, a healer and someone who restored people to their human integrity. But the actual miracle reports were theological texts. Post-Easter Christians, as can be discerned in the letters of St. Paul, understood Christian life as characterized by the efforts to empower each other and to help each other restore each other from pains and struggles. Hence the effort to exert medical help to someone ill is, itself, a miracle.
God does not contradict the nature of God's created world. In and through nature miracles happen. This includes the actions we do to help each other live with dignity. Hence we do not have to look for extraordinary events to witness miracles. Miracles can happen in the most ordinary situations of daily life. I know of someone who made the courageous decision to address his deteriorating health due to vices by consulting, first thing in the morning, the doctor. I'd see that as a miracle. Think of a parent who is so emotionally distant from the children and who decides to re-bond with them. I'd see that as a miracle. Or think of someone so attached to his/her loneliness and decides to seek ways to be happy with the help of friends. Isn't that miraculous? Consider someone who puts work for justice above self-centered career. Isn't that miraculous?
I am not exactly sure of what goes on in people's minds when they wipe their handkerchiefs on statues and images and re-wipe the handkerchiefs on themselves. Do they expect a certain "power" coming from the statues and images? Let us, however, look at one power, it is the "power of the resurrection" as St. Paul stated it (see, for example, 1Cor15). This is seen, for example, in our efforts, small and silent as they may be, in supporting each other to rise constantly from the pull of the dark knowing that "at the end of the day" we will all rise with the Lord.

On Jacob's wrestling with God:
In Genesis we read about Jacob wrestling with God (see Gen 32).
One interpretation of this wresting goes this way. God, who is Almighty, pretends to be weaker. God gives Jacob a trial--a trial that Jacob can handle. So the interpretation extends to our life by saying that God gives us trials--God wrestles with us--but gives us trials that we can handle. 
Is God, however, also really "weak"? Biblical views show God has, from the very start in the creation story, shown a weak side. The Sabbath distance of the seventh day is God's option to take a distance from power and might to be in solidarity with the created world. In the Christian tradition this God will be nailed on the cross. Over the centuries the Church, with her councils, will deal with the "heretical" refusal to acknowledge the humanity of Jesus Christ. One heresy states that Jesus Christ was only pretending to have a hard time up the cross; his God side was using his human side as a front.
Going back to the Jacob story, then, we see that after the wrestling with God Jacob is given a new name, "Israel" signifying "wrestling with God". 
Put this in the whole Jacob cycle of Genesis. Jacob is fearful because of Esau. He is now confronted with his own fear. Jacob is frozen in fear (see his preparations before meeting Esau). 
Jacob is then to confront the fear by first wrestling with God. Face God tonight, face Esau tomorrow. Jacob will address fear by first wrestling with God and receiving God's blessing. What does the story conclude? 
Jacob can never flee from fear. Remember that after the wrestling Jacob will receive a handicap on his hip. Handicapped, he cannot flee, he cannot run. He cannot flee using his own strength--his resources. He will need others--and God. The most authentic way to face fear is by relying on others and God's solidarity with him. Here is where we can appreciate the "weakness" of God. 
Of course we tend to say that God is so strong, all mighty, all powerful and has no weak side. Theologians of the Middle Ages have emphasized this strong and powerful side of God. But "weakness" can be interpreted as the option of God to be on our side, to accompany us, to be one with our joys and pains. "Weakness" can be interpreted as God's willingness to respect us and our being creatures. 
We can appreciate this through what St. Paul called as the "self-emptying" of Jesus: "he emptied himself and became human " he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." (Phil 2/7-8a).
 Remember the Adam and Eve story where God puts them in a condition in which life will be an adventure between both of them. Each will be a partner of the other. It is the human condition described in the Adam and Eve cycle, a human condition that is refused, not acknowledged by Adam and Eve. Now Jacob is to live in adventure with God as partner. Israel is to live in partnership with God.  Jacob thus will have to learn to face, rather than avoid, his fear, thanks to the fact that he is not alone. 
This interpretation, if correct, helps me re-frame my view of God. I am more attuned to the view that God walks with us in life and accompanies us in the trials we face. God does not give trials, God undergoes our trials with us. Both God and us wrestle with our trails, pains, joys, adventures. Hopefully this interpretation helps me face my own neurosis developed in time since childhood by the view that God tests me and sends me trials.