Desert Reflections: A jealous God?

“Does it not seem madness to say, Eat my flesh, drink my blood? And what more could a creature have said to his Creator? Shall I make bold to say the Creator of all things was beside himself through the excess of his loving goodness.” (St Alphonsus Liguori, Reflections and Affections on the Passion of Jesus Christ)

Fr Ed points out that sometimes the translation of a particular word doesn’t help convey a passage’s meaning.  How is it, he wonders, that God is a “jealous” God or a God “stirred to jealous wrath” in today’s first reading when the rest of the passage is about how much God cares for his people?  The New Living Translation, with a focus more on entire thoughts rather than individual words, translates the passage as “This is what the Lord … says: My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for Jerusalem!” St Alphonsus, might go even further and say God is “beside himself” with love for us. Let us, in return, be “beside ourselves” in love for God.

Today’s Readings

Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred to jealous wrath for her.
ZEC 8:1-8

An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest. 
LK 9:46-50