And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
Read Chapter 29
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
In that journey Jacob took two wives, and those two wives prefigured the two people of the Jews and the Gentiles. For at Christ’s coming not a small number even of the Jewish people are read to have believed in him, and again in the Acts of the Apostles there is recorded the fact that on one day three thousand people believed, on another day five thousand and afterward many thousands more. The Lord himself in the Gospel confirms the fact that Jews and Gentiles believed in Christ when he said, “And other sheep I have that are not of this fold. I must also bring them, so that there may be one fold and one shepherd.” Therefore those two women who were married to blessed Jacob, that is, Leah and Rachel, prefigured those two people: Leah the Jews and Rachel the Gentiles. Like a cornerstone Christ is joined to those two people, like two walls coming from different directions. In him they have kissed, and in him they have merited to find eternal peace, as the apostle says, “For he himself is ...
Latter. Jacob is the figure of Jesus Christ; who rejected the synagogue, and treated his Church, gathered from all nations, with the utmost affection. (Calmet)
Lia means "painful or labourious "and Rachel a sheep; denoting, that a quiet contemplative life must be united with an active one; and that the Church must suffer here, and be crowned in heaven. (Haydock) (St. Gregory, Mor. vi. 28.)
