Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
The jealousy, a sign of immaturity
If only you would put up with a little foolishness from me! Please put up with me. For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ. For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough. For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these “superapostles.” Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. 2Cor 11,1-6
In the second letter to the Corinthians Paul, after having described the greatness of the apostolic ministry and having recommended a collection of money for the Christians of Jerusalem, reproaches the brothers of the community of Corinth and the ones who oppose by other doctrines to his mission. Paul is jealous of that church, prepared by him to be a pure bride of Christ, but which risks to be seduced by the evil, as Eve has been by the snake. In that environment, in fact, some pseudo apostles were walking around who, to better deceive the Christians, were simulating to be zealous, virtuous and intransigent persons. As in the Old Testament God is jealous of Israel, Jesus is as such for the church and Paul for the community of Corinth. Is the sentiment of the jealousy acceptable in the interior of a Christian community? It is clear that we are talking about an holy jealousy which derives from the love. The jealousy, on its own, is not a good sentiment, but, unless it is not a pathology of the psyche, when it is manifested it means that in the love relation, also between an husband and a wife, some disturbances are materializing. The more frequent reason is the tendency to the unfaithfulness, but it can come out from the little appreciation versus the others or also from the little self appreciation. The jealousy of Paul, of which the today passage narrates, is caused by the fact that he considers the community of Corinth still young and lacking of experience to withstand the diabolic art of the pseudo apostles who disturb them. The jealousy, when manifested, always denounces the presence of a not mature relation, both for a community and for a couple of married persons.