OUR ZEAL OR JEALOUSY FOR OUR LORD
A noble man wanted a famous painter to paint for him the picture of a galloping horse. The artist presented him the horse on its back and as if rolling in the mud. The noble man began to be angry. Then the artist turned the picture upside down. “Do not be irritated, Sir," he said. ‘To change the position of a galloping horse to that of a horse rolling on its back we need only to turn the painting upside down". Theotimus, to understand well what zeal or jealousy we must have for God, we need only to describe well human jealousy which we have for human realities and then turn it upside down. For such will be the jealousy that God demands for himself from us.
Imagine, Theotimus, a simile. Some enjoy sunlight. Some have only a dim light from a lamp. Those who enjoy sunlight are neither envious nor jealous of one another. For they know well that this light is abundantly sufficient for all. The enjoyment of sunlight by one does not hinder the enjoyment of the same by another. Each one does not posses it less even though all posses it in general. It is as if each one personally possessed sunlight. As regards the light of a lamp as it is dim, limited and insufficient for many, each one desires to have it in his room. The one who has it is envied by others. The good that is in worldly things is so little and low. So when one has it, another is necessarily deprived of it. Human friendship is so limited and weak that in the proportion we share it with some, it is so much less for others. As a consequence, we are jealous and angry when we have rivals and companions.
The heart of God is abounding in love. His goodness is supremely infinite. This infinity is so great that all can possess it without each one possessing less of it. This infinity of his goodness cannot be exhausted though it fills all the hearts of the universe. When all is filled with his goodness, this infinity remains for him always totally, entirely without any diminishing whatever.
The sun shines no less on one rose among millions of other flowers than it shines only on that rose alone. God does not pour out his love less on a soul though he loves an infinite number of souls than if he loved only that one. The intensity of his love does not decrease for the multiplicity of the rays it sheds. Thus God remains always absolutely full of his immensity.
1. In what does the zeal or jealousy which we should have for God consist? Theotimus, first of all, its function is to hate, flee from, prevent, detest, reject, fight against and destroy all that is against God, that is against his will, his glory and the sanctification of his name. I hate, says David, and abhor falsehood (Ps 119:163). Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? (Ps 139:21). My zeal consumes me because my foes forget your words (Ps 119:139). Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all evildoers from the city ofthe Lord (Ps 101:8). See, Theotimus of what great zeal this great king is inspired! How he makes use of his passions for the service of holy jealousy. He does not simply hate wickedness but he abhors it. On seeing it, he loathes it with distress. He falls into a swoon and his heart fails him. He persecutes iniquity, overthrows it and destroys it. Thus Phinehas, inflamed by a holy zeal, pierced through with the sword the shameless Israelite and the scandalous Midianite woman whom he found in prostitution (Num 25:8). Thus zeal which burned in the heart of our Saviour made him drive away and avenge the irreverence and profanation which the sellers and buyers committed in the temple (Jn 2: 14,17).
2. Zeal makes us intensely jealous for the purity of souls who are spouses of Jesus Christ. This is according to St. Paul, the apostle who says in his letter to the Corinthians: I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor 11:2).[1] Eliezer would have been extremely stung by jealousy had he seen the beautiful, chaste Rebecca in danger of being violated. He was leading her to be married by the son of his lord (Gn 24). Doubtless he might have said to this holy maiden: I am jealous of you with the jealousy that I have for my master. For I have betrothed you to a man to present you as a chaste virgin to the son of my lord Abraham. In the same way, the glorious St. Paul said to the Corinthians: I have been sent by God to your souls to arrange the marriage of an eternal union between his Son, our Saviour, and you. I have promised you to him to present you as a chaste virgin to this divine Bridegroom. This is why I am jealous, not with my jealousy but with the Jealousy of God, in whose name I have come to you. This jealousy, Theotimus, made the holy Apostle die and faint every day. I die, he says, every day for your glory (1Cor 15:31). Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I am not indignant (2 Cor 11:29).18
See, says the ancient theologians, see what love, what concern, what jealousy, a hen has for its chicken. Our Lord did not think of this comparison as unworthy of the Gospel (Mt 23: 37). The hen is a hen, in other words, an animal without courage and nobility whatever, as long as it is not a mother-hen. When it has become a mother-hen, she has the heart of a lion, always head raised high with piercing eyes. She goes always casting glances in all directions for fear of danger for her little ones. There is no enemy at the sight of which she will not attack to protect her dear brood. She has an unceasing concern for them which makes her go always clucking and complaining. If any of her chicks is lost, what grief! what anger! It is the jealousy of the fathers and mothers for their children, pastors for their sheep, brothers for their brothers. What was the zeal of the children of Jacob when they knew that their sister Dinah was raped (Gen 34)? What zeal Job had in his anxiety and fear that his children might offend God (Job 1:5)? How great was the zeal of St. Paul for his brothers according to the flesh and for children according to God? For them he had desired to be destroyed like an accursed criminal and be cut off (Rom 9:3). What was the zeal of Moses for his people for whom he wished that he be erased from the book of life (Ex 32:32)?
3. In human jealousy, we are afraid of someone else taking possession of the thing loved. The zeal we have for God, on the contrary, makes us fear, above all things, that we may not be completely his own. Human jealousy makes us fear of not being loved enough. Christian jealousy causes us pain by being afraid of not loving enough. That is why, the holy Sulamite cried out: O, the Beloved of my soul, show me where you rest at midday so that I do not go astray and I do not go after the flock of your companions (Song 1:7). She is afraid of not totally belonging to her sacred Shepherd. She is afraid of being even a little distracted by those who want to become his rivals. For she does not desire that worldly pleasures, honours and external goods possess even a grain of her love which she has wholly consecrated to her divine Saviour.
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[1] NRSV