Good dog – bad dog; a speculation

This is a speculative walkabout which was inspired by things recently said by a young man; It's not all that well formed, so I hope it's not too confusing; I repeat that it's speculation!

Jealousy is generally regarded as a particularly unattractive vice, and at times can certainly be so. But is Jealousy categorically and always a vice, an occasion of sin, as some things are, always and every where? Before responding in the affirmative, it’s perhaps worth the time to remember a few things:

I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous [Ex 20:5]
Adore not any strange god. The Lord his name is
jealous, he is a jealous God.[Ex 34:14]
For I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God [Dt 5:9]
Because the Lord thy God is a jealous God [Dt 6:15]
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I have been jealous for
Sion with a great jealousy, and with a great indignation
have I been jealous for her. [Zach 8:2]

I think it safe to say that we have all been schooled in the bad aspects of jealousy, but perhaps we are a bit weak on the good aspects of jealousy.


What got me started on this was a consideration of God and his children, compared to children and parents.

The child, when born, is completely dependent on the parents (mother in particular), for every need; can make those needs known, and have them satisfied. The child grows in a relationship where love is given by the mother, and received by the child, in a relationship that to the child, is all but exclusive. The child is becoming a jealous lover, in the worst sense of the word, while the mother and father are learning to be a jealous lovers in the best sense of the word; they must give of themselves to each other and to another; a love that if pure, is not diminished by a third person, but expanded by it. The child, however, on becoming aware that there are others in the life of the parents, others whom receive from his beloved that which he wants all to himself, is hurt. This hurt, that the beloved must be shared, usually translates itself into behaviors which punish the perceived malefactors, be they parents or siblings; those others who receive what is desired for the self.

If we consider for a moment again, God’s jealousy, we can remind ourselves of something very important; that infinite love God has for us is not a sentimental love, it does nothing for God; it is charity; God wills our good. And our good is best obtained if we love God in return, for God’s sake, not for what we receive from God (which is mercenary love). God’s love for one individual, or all individuals, does not diminish God’s love for any other individual; it is complete and entire, just as Jesus is complete and entire, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in each and every Eucharist, and particle thereof. If you keep this in mind, one easily can see why a jealous God is not angered by our love for our neighbor for His sake; this love redounds to Him. However, a love for created things for their own sake; this arouses the jealousy of God.


So I am speculating that it is when love moves from the essentially sensual (ie: sentimental/feeling) self-directed mode (amo), to the essentially spiritual (ie: willing), other-directed mode (caritas), that the self-interested aspects of jealousy fall away, replaced by the medicinal aspects of jealousy which so mark God’s providence. The self-directed jealousy has as it’s goal to hurt the offending party (ie: malice); the other-directed jealousy has as it’s goal the correction of the offending party (ie: charity), to return them to a right relationship for their own sake.

Back to children; in a way, parents are gods to children. Earthly fatherhood is but an echo of our Heavenly Father, and while children are jealous lovers like the gods of ancient Greece and Rome, it befalls to the parents to live a life which, as Mary says “magnifies the Lord,” that the children can at least see what they have set before them as a goal. If they never see anything in their parents but the petty tyranny of the gods of Greece and Rome, their path will be all the more difficult. We do not despair, however, because with God, all things are possible.

The title is from the old story about interior conflict; which dog wins? the one you feed. Put on Christ, you can't loose.