Resisting What Is True

Today’s readings.

In the Catholic tradition, envy is not understood simply as wanting what another has; it is a kind of sorrow at another’s good, a resistance to the fact that goodness, blessing, or truth can exist outside of us and apart from our control. That insight helps to shed light on today’s readings. 

The just man in Wisdom is not opposed because he has done wrong, but because his life exposes another standard. His goodness disturbs those who would rather remain undisturbed. And in the Gospel, Jesus meets a similar resistance because He comes with an authority not granted by the crowd. 

This is where opposition to God often takes root: in the refusal to yield when something higher appears. We tell ourselves we know better, that we are mature enough to decide what is good, and yet beneath that is often something more fragile—the inability to receive what we did not choose, or to recognize a good that does not originate in us. Over time, that refusal hardens and begins as discomfort becomes resistance, and resistance turns into opposition to God’s plan itself.

Today’s Practice – Prayer:

Ask God for the grace to recognize and receive the good in others without resistance. Name one person today whose gifts, success, or goodness might be unsettling to you, and bring that honestly into prayer and let God reorder your heart.