Jealousy had a lot to do with Jesus’ arrest. We read in Matthew’s gospel, “Pilate knew it was out of jealousy that they [religious leaders] looked for a way to hand Jesus over to him” (Matthew 27.18).
Jealousy figures big time into the attempt to silence Jeanne-Marie Bouvier (commonly known as Madame Guyon) (1648-1717). The hierarchy of the Catholic Church brought forward bogus charges to discredit her growing influence. In truth, they were jealous of her rising popularity. Her recently released book, A Simple and Easy Method of Prayer was the buzz all over Europe. It quickly went through six printings and was wildly popular with the contemplative crowd. A group of monks ordered fifteen hundred copies. Who was this laywoman, without proper training, attempting to teach monks and nuns? Public prayers had been the domain of the professional clergy, yet her writing displayed more insight into the human soul than what had been penned by priests and bishops. The church hierarchy feared her popularity would erode their credibility and influence, so they arrested her on grounds of heresy, witchcraft, and immorality. What a farce. Solzhenitsyn said, “Our envy of others devours us most of all.” They imprisoned her for a year in a small room without windows and proper ventilation and moved her to a dungeon in a remote castle where she spent the final years in the infamous Bastille prison for political prisoners. She endured seven years in jail, the last two in solitary confinement.
While Madame Guyon (pronounced Gay-yo) was in prison, she wrote A Little Bird I Am as a prayer. She described prayer in her book as “The application of the heart to God and the internal exercise of love.” Even in prison, her soul was free: