We sometimes come across people who are immensely jealous, insecure and easily provoked. Such persons cannot stand seeing other people doing well, or doing better than them, or even making some progress, since such persons fear that they may lose out. When such persons let jealousy get the better of them, they begin to do and say things merely to protect what they think is their interests or to safeguard their position and power. But what such persons fail to realise is that their jealousy would only lead them to say or do things which could lead them to look foolish or even lead them to commit sin.
In today's Gospel, the scribes who
had come down from Jerusalem had such immense jealousy, that they began
to talk rubbish and contradict themselves when they said about Jesus: "'Beelzebul is in him'
and, 'It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.'"
Jesus really went to town with these scribes and made fun of them,
saying: "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against
itself, that kingdom cannot last. And if a household is divided against
itself, that household can never stand. Now if Satan has rebelled
against himself and is divided, he cannot stand either – it is the end
of him." Due to jealousy, these scribes uttered contradicting and silly
statements, just because they could not get the better of Jesus, only to be made to look foolish with Jesus' rebuttal to their utterance.
Have some of us become like these scribes, saying nonsensical things in the heat of jealousy? May we be on our guard against such immense jealousy, and think carefully what we say and do, since all that we say and do should be for the glory of God.
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