Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/doctors/devotion/?id=devotion&day=12&month=9
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful. 1 Corinthians 13:4
Jealousy is one of the most destructive of all attitudes. The jealous mind, burning to destroy the object of its jealousy, all too often destroys itself. Iago, with lying motives, yet spoke the truth to Othello:
O beware, my Lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.*
He was in fact implanting jealousy in Othello's mind towards Desdemona, and in time both Desdemona and Othello were destroyed. The story is a terrible warning, especially as it shows the trivialities on which jealousy can be based. Iago knew this only too well and put into words with an ironic twist:
Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmation strong
As proofs of holy writ.*
No one is immune from the attacks of this monster. Our Lord's own disciples quarrelled over which of them was to be regarded as the greatest (Lk 22:24) and resented others doing what they considered their preserve (Mk 9:38). The basis of all such attitudes is jealousy. And there is no shortage of it in medicine, with rivalry over clinical preferment, secretiveness in research, and resentment over someone else's success.
There is, of course, another older meaning of the word jealousy -- zeal and solicitude. And the scriptures speak often of the jealousy of God. This is something different and very proper. It is not the green-eyed jealousy' of which we all need to beware.
From bitterness preserve me, Lord
From jealous thoughts protect my day,
Against the stroke of envy's sword
Help me to hold my way.
And grant my soul sufficient grace
To gladden at another's prize
And look upon his eager face
With sympathetic eyes.
Further reading: Lk 22:24-27.
RRW
* 'Othello' by William Shakespeare. Act 3, Scene 3.
