Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR A SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER - 3.4.05 Acts 2,42-7; 1 Pet 1,3-9; Jn 20,19-31 Guilty of “schadenfreude”? (It means: Gloating over the evil of others) Today
is “Mercy Sunday”.
In the ‘Collect’ we pray: ‘God of mercy, You wash our sins - & give us
a new birth - & redeem us in the blood of Christ. Increase our awareness of
your blessings & renew your gift of life in us”. Today, our Holy Father
asks us to awaken in us the amazing reality that God is infinitely rich in mercy
& compassion, in spite of the absolute reality that -without His Grace &
left to our human devices- we are full of ‘bad’ thoughts, wishes &
feelings - a mystery of contradiction - in conflict with the people we love
& with our very selves. The Pope asks us to learn anew, how to be full of
mercy & compassion, as God is towards us. To assess the extent to which our
human condition is driven by ‘bad thoughts’, we no longer turn to preachers,
but we take it from today’s top Schools of Psychiatry in top Universities:
Universities of Kentucky (USA) - of
Vermont (USA) - Amsterdam - Sapienza in Rome... With extensive statistics these
top schools show that it is ‘normal’ to have bad thoughts. Of course -they
say- we all have inner values, by
which we wish to be respected, still our bad thoughts make us live in contrast -
become ashamed & at times, force us into isolation! The ‘bad thought’
par excellence is “green envy”. Often we ‘catch ourselves’, gloating
over the misfortunes that befall on our opponents, who by the way are not
far-away people, but ‘dear ones’ at home or at work.
As we admit that our friends have more muscles, are more brilliant -
admired - beautiful - successful (newly engaged?) than us, instinctively we
respond with envy, to the extreme of rejoicing
when things go wrong in their life. We literally wish they fall from power &
die. Why? Because as we compare
with them-, we resent to be ‘losers & inferior’; & retaliate with
envy, which acts as self-defence, to lash at them & assess our worth. The
dark side in us. Sadly,
envy is not the only bad thought. Schools of Psychiatry, with an array of
statistical data, show that we all have feelings of aggression against
minorities (i.e. homosexuals, no-hopers...). We are all racist. In the
area of ‘thoughts of betrayal’, statistics show that, out of 100 men, 98
-& out of 100 women 80- hold thoughts of betraying their partner (sexual
fantasies) at the very time of affection. These thoughts -they explain- act as
stimulant & are never to be communicated to their partners... And what about
‘rival’ feelings in Sport, Olympic Games & Politics, as we approve &
show satisfaction, when our opponents go under, fairly or unfairly! Or about
feelings of ‘good ridden’ when a ‘dear one’ dies after a long illness? -
or about feelings of rejection, when others are preferred in our family?
-or still about that secret feeling of preferring work to ‘the joys of
family responsibility’?... Of course, as good Christians, no sooner these bad
thoughts arise, we quickly ‘ban’ them: ‘How could a good person like me
think like this’? We feel shame & conflict, when lashing against one
another in our very families; at times we develop guilt complexes & end up
being devoured by envy, jealousy, hurts, dejection, aggression. An old Latin
proverb said: “mors tua, vita mea” (=your death is my life). Sadly, we
rejoice over our friends’ misfortune. It’s as if we become spectators in
their tragedy & enjoy our evil pleasure: ‘You thought you were so
brilliant, now pay for it! - It serves you right. You didn’t deserve your
success. Now you are back where you belong: shut up, put up, get out, or just
drop dead’! For such raving, a new word has been coined, borrowed from the
German language. It is called “schadenfreude” & it means ‘gloating
over the evil of others’. Today, pray
for ‘mercy’: be merciful as your heavenly Father is. ______________________________________ |
