Jealousy!\u00a0 It is one of the seven deadly sins.\u00a0 This morning we hear how Saul had become jealous of David, so much so that he considered killing him.\u00a0 And all because people sang and danced over \u201c10 thousand\u201d enemies that David allegedly slew whereas they gave King Saul credit for only \u201cone thousand\u201d.\u00a0 For a while, David had been an answer to a prayer for Saul because he was so successful, but Saul\u2019s ego got in the way and so he plotted against David.\u00a0 Some of the text has been left out of this selection.\u00a0 If you read it, you find Saul trying to use David\u2019s attraction for his daughter Michol as a way to get at David.\u00a0 Indeed, Saul\u2019s anger runs deep.<\/p>\n
Jealousy over someone else\u2019s success is a human reaction that we all share, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It seems particularly hard for people to accept someone else\u2019s success after they been successful themselves.\u00a0 I am sure that all of us can think of a time when someone stole the spotlight from us.\u00a0 And rather than rejoice in the other person\u2019s success, we became envious or jealous.\u00a0 I think about a first-born children, for example.\u00a0 Perhaps a little boy is basking in the attention and the joy that went with undivided attention from his parents.\u00a0 Along comes a baby sister and what a shock that little fellow has.\u00a0 It seems as if the baby stole all the attention right out from under him.\u00a0 I have seen that over and over in my innocent grandchildren as they came along.<\/p>\n
But, when folks get older, this natural, innocent bewilderment can turn ugly.\u00a0 Perhaps you feel you did a really great job on a work project, and all of a sudden someone else steals the show.\u00a0 They did something themselves that for one reason or another, the boss raves about, but he seems to just gloss over your achievement.<\/p>\n
What should we do when we feel that emotion of jealousy and envy, and even anger in situations like that?\u00a0 First of all, recognize that life is just like that.\u00a0 God\u2019s gifts are given to everyone; everyone has a share of the limelight.\u00a0 And, we should be happy when someone else succeeds.\u00a0 After all, we all want them to be happy for us when we succeed.<\/p>\n
But more than that, gifts are not balanced.\u00a0 Whenever my wife baked a pie, she always used to have one of our kids cut the pie. \u00a0And whoever cut the pie was the person who received the last piece.\u00a0 Everybody learned a key lesson from that.\u00a0 No matter how hard you would try, it was just very hard to cut that pie so that everyone gets the same size piece.\u00a0 And it is that way in life as well.\u00a0 You might get the larger piece of the pie today, but someone else is going to get the larger piece of pie tomorrow.\u00a0 That\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Second, these deadly sins, like jealousy and envy, are the devil\u2019s best chance to derail you from your real goals in life.\u00a0 They draw attention to ourselves and our wants rather than God\u2019s will for us.\u00a0 And if we become consumed with jealousy and envy, we lose sight of what our lives are really all about-\u00a0 the mission and goals that God has in mind for us.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly where the devil wants us- consumed in ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0 On the other hand, sharing the limelight is a lesson in humility that all of us need to learn.\u00a0 Because when you come right down to it, we are all really the same in God\u2019s eyes even though we are as different as night and day in gifts, talents, and limitations.\u00a0 It is God\u2019s attention and praise we should be seeking; not the world\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Gospel echoes the same lesson.\u00a0 All those people closing in on Jesus were doing it not because they loved God or Jesus; but because they wanted something from him- something worldly.\u00a0 They were into themselves.\u00a0 And so Jesus arranged for an escape from the pressure.<\/p>\n
The next time you start to feel jealous or envious of someone else.\u00a0 Think about how the devil is working on you.\u00a0 Let it go, and seek after God\u2019s praise first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time (U) 1 Sam 18: 6-9, 19: 1-7; Mk 3: 7-12 Dc. Larry Brockman Jealousy!\u00a0 It is one of the seven deadly sins.\u00a0 This morning we hear how Saul had become jealous of David, so much so that he considered killing him.\u00a0 And all because people sang and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[388],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}