Second Friday of Lent

They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm and resin to be taken down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers: "What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.

Jealousy can lead us to do terrible things. Jealousy is a sin that is subtle and worms its way into our hearts when we focus to much on what other people have and are not satisfied with what we've got. It is a sin that comes from a lack of love and empathy for others. When someone has something we wish we had, we can be tempted to be envious. However, instead of envy, we should be thankful for the other person's good and supportive of them. We all have areas in our lives that are lacking in comparison to others, but one thing we are not lacking is God's Love. He loves all of us as his children and we need to recognize that all though God might seem to love others more than us, that is just our own lack of knowledge and perception. God will always love us because we are each a unique and unrepeatable expression of His Love of others and the world. We all have a unique role to play in Creation and we should be thankful for that above all else and realize jealousy denies this truth by taking away our uniqueness and trying to replace it with someone else's individual good.

Are we jealous of anyone? How can we rid ourselves of our envious thoughts? What can we do to focus on our own uniqueness and how special we are in God's Creation?

O Lord, cleanse us of all jealousy.

Amen.