Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene

I, the LORD, am your God, 

who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves 
in the shape of anything in the sky above 
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; 
you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God… 

Eric Sevareid once said of a certain reporter, “She could give rudeness a bad name.” Lots of people give jealousy a bad name. Insecure and unsure of their own worth, they make insane demands of loved ones, requiring undivided loyalty and affection.

These are not God’s problems. Rather, it is “right and just that we should give God thanks and praise”; to do anything less is unjust, insulting to God’s goodness and unworthy of ourselves. No one would use plastic flatware to fete an honored guest and her finest silver to serve nachos to children. It’s just not done.

Likewise we serve God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength because to do anything less would be discourteous, ridiculous and downright crazy.

So when we read in Exodus, “For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God…” we say, “I should hope so!” After all, we expect married couples to be jealous of their relationship, defending it against anyone who would pull them apart, be they old flames or meddlesome in-laws. Parents have a right to be jealous of their authority as the “first teachers of the faith,” as the Rite of Baptism teaches. So we are glad to know that our Saving God is a jealous God.

But there are times when we might wish otherwise. Like the child who strains against her parents’ authority, we sometimes wish we were not so special in the eyes of God. We might wish we could be like everyone else, thinking, speaking and acting in the same ways, indulging in the same narrow-minded, narcissistic attitudes of people around us. 

But God has called us and Saint Paul reminds us:

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said: "I will live with them and move among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come forth from them and be separate," says the Lord, "and touch nothing unclean; then I will receive you and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."

2 Corinthians 6:16ff