22 January. Jealousy and loyalty. SEE: Family dialogue, as faith sharing time, had become important to the family and they touched on many issues including friendship. Parents don’t always like the friends their children bring home and this can cause serious conflict at times. Young people want and need friends and they may stand up for them through thick and thin even when they are in the wrong. As they shared on the story of Saul’s jealousy of David’s popularity, and how Saul’s son Jonathan, David’s friend, warned him about his father’s intention to have David killed in battle, they could see some of the dynamics of friendship at play.

JUDGE, reflect and share:  Scripture: Saul turned a jealous eye on David from that day forward. Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father. “You saw his deeds and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?” Read Samuel 18 and 19:1-7, Pope Francis: Patience takes root when I recognise that other people also have a right to live in this world, just as they are. it doesn’t matter if they unsettle my plans, or annoy me by the way they act or think or are not everything I want them to be.  AL92.  “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” ( Rom 8:35.37-39). SNC3

ACT: Decide on possible appropriate action.   Conclude with prayer