This past summer a French friend posted a lovely picture of his family’s home in Corsica on Facebook. I wrote a three-word comment: “I hate you.” It was written in jest, but as I reflected on that comment later I realized that I often find myself jealous about other people’s good fortunes and too eager to share my good news as if I were in a competition.
Taking on Elizabeth’s attitude is the antidote to such feelings. Most of us could do with a dose of Elizabeth in our lives. We could stand to be keener in noticing God’s love at work in other people’s lives as much as in our own. In taking on the disposition of Elizabeth we discover deep within ourselves our call to bless those whom we encounter. It’s a call marked by the opposite of jealousy: expectant joy – like a child leaping within us.
—Fr. Martin Connell, S.J. is Professor of Education at John Carroll University, University Heights, OH, and Rector of the John Carroll University Jesuit community.