Seventh Wednesday of Ordinary Time

“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

Why do the disciples try to prevent someone from driving out demons in Jesus' name? Maybe it is because they were jealous of the person. After all, a few short paragraphs before, they had failed to exorcise a mute demon because of their lack of prayer. Maybe they thought this new exorcist was seeking to take their place among the disciples. After all, they had just debated about who was the greatest among them and been rebuked about how the first must be a servant of all. Here is a new exorcist who is driving out demons and serving others… an ideal disciple and yet not one of them. And so once again Jesus rebukes his own followers, reminding them that jealousy has no place in his Kingdom. We would do well to remember that the next time we feel envious of others. We should be happy at the success of others and spurred on to do better ourselves. After all, it is a far better use of our time and energy than stewing in the sin of jealousy.

Who are we jealous of? How can we let go of these feelings of envy? How can we use the success of others as inspiration to do better?

O Lord, rid us of all our jealousy.

Amen.