Friday of the 2nd
Week of Lent
March 21, 2014 8:30am
Our first reading from Genesis
has a good lesson for us today.
The context is that Jacob has
twelve sons by different women.
This, of course, took place in
ancient times and in another culture.
Monogamy was not the law or
morality of the land.
At any rate, Jacob clearly favors
his son Joseph because his mother is Jacob’s favorite and Joseph is born in
Jacob’s old age.
Jacob’s other eleven sons are
jealous of Joseph.
Today we hear the lengths to
which their jealousy carries them.
This leads me to two thoughts
about jealousy.
First, it is always helpful and
always a good spiritual practice to focus on what we have instead of on what we
do not have.
It is always important to express
our gratitude to God.
In fact, some prayer of
thankfulness is important each day.
This is important in itself and
it is also helpful in dealing with feelings of jealousy.
It can keep jealousy in check and
in control.
And second, Joseph’s brothers
would have done well to express their jealousy and resentment to their father.
Their real issue or upset was
with their father and not their brother Joseph.
Had the other eleven brothers
gone directly to their father and expressed themselves, they may well have
worked out the problem and their feelings would never have gotten to the
destructive level.
Jealousy or any king of upset can
usually get resolved this way – by going directly to the source of the problem
and trying to work it out.
So, a classic Old Testament story
leads us to some reflections that remain always valid.
