Monday, June 15th, 2020

You see why jealousy is a problem? It doesn’t sound so bad does it: it’s just interior - I’m not hurting anyone. And anyway I can’t help it. Not true though. As we see in today’s First Reading: King Ahab appreciates the vineyard. That’s OK. But then he wants it for himself. “‘Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it adjoins my house;” And then he begins to lie and cheat- “I will give you a better vineyard for it”: he knows that’s not true, otherwise he wouldn’t want it. And then to devalue it: instead of appreciating it, he reduces it to an object. As he says: “or, if you prefer, I will give you its worth in money.’. And then when he can’t get what he wants, he has a sulk: “Ahab went home gloomy and out of temper...He lay down on his bed and turned his face away and refused to eat.” And finally, giving into the temptations of his wife, to get what he wants, he commits murder: “They led him outside the town and stoned him to death.” Ahab gets what he desired - but at the cost of gravely harming others, and also his soul. The same thing happens to us when we tread the path of jealousy. Life is not about getting the things we want: that is selfishness. Life is about love: giving ourselves to others - only there is found happiness. Protect us, Lord, from being jealous of what others have and I do not: protect us from that evil path, that selfish bitumen road of bitterness.