20160121 DEALING WITH ENVY AND JEALOUSY
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Red.
|
First reading
|
|
1 Samuel
18:6-9,19:1-7 ©
|
On their way back, as
David was returning after killing the Philistine, the women came out to meet
King Saul from all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing to the sound of
tambourine and lyre and cries of joy; and as they danced the women sang:
‘Saul has killed his
thousands,
and David his tens of
thousands.’
Saul was very angry;
the incident was not to his liking. ‘They have given David the tens of
thousands,’ he said ‘but me only the thousands; he has all but the kingship
now.’ And Saul turned a jealous eye on David from that day forward.
Saul told
Jonathan his son and all his servants of his intention to kill David. Now
Jonathan, Saul’s son, held David in great affection; and so Jonathan warned
David; ‘My father Saul is looking for a way to kill you,’ he said ‘so be on
your guard tomorrow morning; hide away in some secret place. Then I will go out
and keep my father company in the fields where you are hiding, and will talk to
my father about you; I will find out what the situation is and let you know.’
So
Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father; he said, ‘Let not the king sin
against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you, and what he has
done has been greatly to your advantage. He took his life in his hands when he
killed the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all
Israel. You saw it yourself and rejoiced; why then sin against innocent blood
in killing David without cause?’ Saul was impressed by Jonathan’s words and
took an oath, ‘As the Lord lives, I will not kill him.’ Jonathan called David
and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought him to Saul, and David
attended on him as before.
|
Psalm
|
|
Psalm
55:2-3,9-14 ©
|
In God I trust: I
shall not fear.
Have mercy on me,
God, men crush me;
they
fight me all day long and oppress me.
My foes crush me all
day long,
for many
fight proudly against me.
In God I trust: I
shall not fear.
You have kept an
account of my wanderings;
you have
kept a record of my tears;
(are they
not written in your book?)
Then my foes will be
put to flight
on the
day that I call to you.
In God I trust: I
shall not fear.
This I know, that God
is on my side.
In God,
whose word I praise,
in the
Lord whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I
shall not fear;
what can
mortal man do to me?
In God I trust: I
shall not fear.
I am bound by the
vows I have made you.
O God, I
will offer you praise
for you have rescued
my soul from death,
you kept
my feet from stumbling
that I may walk in
the presence of God
and enjoy
the light of the living.
In God I trust: I
shall not fear.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
cf.Jn6:63,68
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are
spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message
of eternal life.
Alleluia!
|
Or
|
cf.2Tim1:10
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus
Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed
life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Mark 3:7-12 ©
|
Jesus withdrew with
his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From
Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon,
great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. And he asked his disciples
to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being
crushed. For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were
crowding forward to touch him. And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him,
would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he warned
them strongly not to make him known.
DEALING
WITH ENVY AND JEALOUSY
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 1 Samuel 18:6-9;
19:1-7;
Ps 55:2-3,9-14; Mark 3:7-12
Envy
and jealousy are very powerful human emotions. It is not easy to handle
these emotions. If not properly managed, a person can go into rage, fall
into depression, and become crazy. The consequences of envy are
anger, hatred, revenge, malicious backbiting, gossiping and even killing.
Indeed, we can be intelligent, well-educated, professionals and doing well in
our careers, but unable to handle our feelings of envy and jealousy; just like
what happened to King Saul and the Jewish religious leaders.
Envy
and jealousy spring from our fears when we are intimidated. It is a natural reaction.
The truth is that we all suffer from the sin of pride, low-esteem and
insecurity. We are all desperate for love, acceptance and recognition
because of our egotism.
This
was the case of the scribes who connived with the Herodians to kill Jesus after He healed the man with the
withered hands. They felt threatened by His growing popularity and, most
of all, for challenging the status quo. For this reason, Jesus had to
withdraw from teaching in the synagogues to teach on the seashores and in the
fields instead. This tactical move was not done out of fear but
necessity, because a showdown at this point of His mission would jeopardize His
ultimate mission. The time was not yet opportune for Jesus to whip up
support from the crowd because it could be perceived as a political rebellion
and it would be crushed by the Roman soldiers. So it was the most prudent
thing to do as His mission was just beginning and still not accomplished.
Saul,
too, felt threatened by someone younger than him – David, who was loyal to
him. But he
could not recognize that David was for him and not after his crown. When
he became too popular and loved by his people, from the court officials to the
ordinary people, Saul became insecure and jealous. He could not stomach
the fact that they saw David as an equal, or even better than him, when the
women sang, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of
thousands.” So we read that “Saul was very angry; the incident was not to
his liking.’ They have given David the tens of thousands,’ he said, ‘but me
only the thousands; he has all but the kingship now.’ And Saul turned a jealous
eye on David from that day forward.” Indeed, in his insecurity, David,
the rising star of the kingdom, was perceived as his competitor instead of a
faithful and loyal ally.
How
do we overcome such destructive emotions? Firstly, envy is overcome by
love and friendship. Jonathan is a case in point. If anyone was to feel
threatened, it should not have been Saul but Jonathan, because he was the crown
prince. He should have been the one to feel insecure by the rise of
David. But he loved David, and he put friendship and love before
ambition. His love for David was real and sincere. He was happy to
see his friend loved and recognized by others; and successful in his military
expeditions. In fact, “Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he
loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe
that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and
his bow and his girdle.” (1 Sm 18:3f) In
other words, he bestowed upon David the insignia of royalty, power and
glory. This explains why in the face of his father’s jealousy, he sought
to calm the anger of his father and soothe his fears.
The
second way to overcome envy is through understanding. If we cannot control the spontaneous
reactions of our heart, we can rein it by logical understanding. This was
what Jonathan did. He sought to enlighten Saul logically why David was
not a threat to his power. He said, “Let not the king sin against his
servant David, for he has not sinned against you, and what he has done has been
greatly to your advantage. He took his life in his hands when he killed the
Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw
it yourself and rejoiced; why then sin against innocent blood in killing David
without cause?” And we read that “Saul was impressed by Jonathan’s words
and took an oath, ‘As the Lord lives, I will not kill him.’” In the same
way too, Jesus forbade the Evil Spirit to reveal His identity as the Messiah,
especially in Galilee, which was a hot spot for revolutionaries, for fear that
the wrong understanding of the concept of Messiah, of His identity and mission
would lead to revolt and bloodshed. The truth was that His idea of
messiahship was not a political or military messiah but a suffering servant of
God in love and service. So, until that was rightly understood, the crowd
could give a wrong impression to the authorities that Jesus was staging a
revolution or a rebellion.
The
way of understanding also calls for self-awareness. One of the biggest issues among
leaders is the lack of self-awareness. They are often so caught up with
their power and authority, and the service and adulation of the people that
they think too highly of themselves. They think that they are the best
and have the right ideas in whatever they do. Yet, the sin of presumption
is theirs. They are not able to see the truth about themselves, their own
arrogance, insecurity, fears and their selfish ambitions and desires.
When we perceive our critics or others as popular and famous, we could impose
our fears on them, even when in fact they are not what we perceive them to
be. It is just a self-projection of our fears.
Thirdly,
we must accept that all charisma, especially of leadership, is a gift of God. This is what the bible means
when it says that God is with that prophet or leader. Leaders are
born, not made. Or course, leadership can be groomed, provided they
have been given the natural talent to lead. As a gift, it can be taken
away by God, as in the case of Saul who failed to exercise his gift of
leadership rightly. On the other hand, David was gifted and he won
the hearts of all. He was lovable and was also a great military leader.
Even Saul’s servants were won over and not resentful of him.
“And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; so that Saul set
him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and
also in the sight of Saul’s servants.” (1 Sm 18:5) The
ordinary women folk also loved him and admired him. He was a born
leader. So too was Jesus. We read that the crowds from all over
came to see Jesus because of His healing power and preaching. “From Judaea,
Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great
numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. And he asked his
disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from
being crushed.”
Fourthly,
we should learn from Jonathan and from John the Baptist to step aside
graciously when a better leader is found. When someone with greater abilities than us comes
to the fore, we should step aside. Jonathan knew himself and he knew that
David was a better leader. He did not fight to be the next
king. He was ready to allow the best man to be king. Such was the
emotional maturity and generosity of Jonathan. That should be the
attitude of all leaders, always looking out for someone who is better to take
over his office. A good leader, whilst leading, must actively search for
a new leader so that when he is found and when he is ready, it would mean that
it is time for the old leader to step aside. We should not cling on
to our office longer than is necessary if we are true servant leaders.
Our greatest desire should be for the good of the people and not for ourselves,
our ambition and self-interests. If we do not, then we would be forcibly
removed, as we read later how Saul lost favour with God. And God
told Samuel to remove him and anoint David instead. So don’t wait
to be removed; rather, we should know when we should step down
graciously. Like Jesus, we must remember that messiahship and
leadership is for service, not for power and glory. It is servanthood.
Finally,
in all things, like David, we must trust in the Lord when we are attacked
unjustly by our opponents and enemies, especially when we have done nothing
wrong. Quite
often, some of us suffer innocently simply because we are talented and do our
work well. There will be some green-eyed monsters who will try to slander
us, discredit us and destroy the work we do. We must forgive them for
their resentment against us, precisely because we have done nothing against
them. We must feel with them in their insecurity and helplessness in
trying to control their sin of envy and jealousy. But God will protect
us. We only need to pray with David in the psalm when he said, “Have
mercy on me, God, men crush me; they fight me all day long and oppress me. My
foes crush me all day long, for many fight proudly against me. You have
kept an account of my wanderings; you have kept a record of my
tears; are they not written in your book? Then my foes will be put to
flight on the day that I call to you. This I know, that God is on
my side. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I
praise, in God I trust; I shall not fear; what can mortal man do to me?”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment