Good morning. Today’s Gospel from the book of Mark has the Pharisees once again challenging Jesus. They spot His Apostles plucking wheat on the Sabbath and suggest to Jesus they are acting unlawfully. It seems the Pharisees were relentless in their efforts to trip Jesus up; they were constantly challenging Him on the Mosaic Law and on his motives and His right to be doing various things. Their actions demonstrated considerable envy and resentment for Jesus, in part I’d guess because Jesus was taking attention away from them. It seems the Pharisees were threatened by the attention He was receiving from the people.
How often do we find ourselves driven by feelings of envy and resentment? So often these feelings can creep into a marriage. There is a wedding tradition amongst Italians where the groom puts a piece of iron in his pocket to ward-off the “evil-eye” of envy. Envy can so readily tear apart a couple as it often leads to unfounded feelings and suspicions within a relationship; this is particularly true with individuals, as we witness with the Pharisees, who are uncertain of themselves. Often we see envy creep its ugly head up in situations where one of the spouses feels inadequate and unworthy. This can sometimes be the result of getting older, or the loss of a job, or perhaps for health reasons. If you know this about your spouse it is important to help them feel differently about themselves, to work toward helping them better appreciate themselves. Knowing this, we need to be on the look-out for positive things in our day to day lives and offer compliments to our spouse, being certain that our compliments are factual. Nobody appreciates receiving unfounded and phony flattery. Try this, look for an opportunity to offer a compliment each day and watch as you see new life spring into your marriage. Make a great day!
Today we recall the life of Blessed Christina Ciccarelli.
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