Daily Retreat 02/20/06

2006 Feb 20 Mon: Ordinary Weekday

Jas 3: 13-18/ Ps 18(19): 8. 9. 10. 15/ Mk 9: 14-29

From today’s readings: "...the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.... The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.... This kind can only come out through prayer...."

Jealousy and Selfish Ambition

You and I both know many people who have way more than we do, and yet they are unsatisfied. We moan, "If I only had his income, that would be more than enough for me. Or her intelligence. Or their sense of family peace. Or his opportunities, or her charm, or their good fortune. They have so much - why aren’t they ever satisfied?" Yet even as you and I complain about so many ingrates, these people who don’t realize how good they have it, if we would ever stop and listen, we’d probably be able to hear just as many people hungrily longing for the abundant blessings in our own lives which we so much take for granted!

So jealousy is like a poisonous but invisible gas which can so easily permeate the air we breathe, robbing us of peace and contentment and gratitude to God for His super-abundant goodness to us. Selfish ambition, the sinister sister of jealousy, likewise can snare our souls so softly and subtly, leading, as St. James observes, to "disorder and every foul practice."

How can we resist such insidious fiends? Only the wisdom from above can detect and discover and expose and expel these intrepid intruders, for jealousy and selfish ambition cannot long co-exist with Christian charity and "the humility that comes from wisdom!"