A Jealous Heart Is a Great Destroyer

1 Sam 18:6-9,19:1-7 / Mk 3:7-12

The songs that King Saul heard in today’s Old Testament reading as he returned from battle soured his soul. “Saul has slain his thousands, and David has slain his ten thousands,” was their chant, and it cut to the quick.  Saul had never lived up to the early expectations of him, and he never really got a sense of what it meant to be a king — to be, more than anything else, a protector and guide for his people, especially for the weak. For him, ego was master, and ego’s jealousy led him to ever-greater depths, culminating in a plan to murder David.

A jealous, wounded ego can be a great destroyer, and one that can so nicely justify itself to itself all along the way. It can bring a kind of madness upon us, leading us down ugly roads we’ve never even thought of before, roads from which there is no easy escape. A jealous heart takes no joy in its own gifts, and it gives no gifts. A jealous heart never knows peace.

Jesus has shown us a much happier way of living, which wastes no time pretending that we are or ought to be the center of the universe. Letting God be God for us can free us from so much that is useless, and can make us ready for real living in His presence.

Relax in the Lord and share His joy.

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