16. Envy.

We mentioned Saul, whose whole soul was swallowed up by his envy for David. This

envy destroyed his gift for statesmanship and in the end his life itself. For envy our Lord

Jesus Christ was given up to trial and punishment by His enemies. This is a foul and

sinful feeling, but a penitent can hardly hide this passion from his own conscience, so if

he does not wish knowingly to lie at confession he will admit, when asked by the priest,

to being overpowered by temptations to envy. The priest will point out the two examples

mentioned above and say that “Through the envy of the devil is sin come into the world,”

as is explained in the Wisdom of Solomon. Warn him that envy is joined to the yet more

repulsive feeling of gloating over the misfortunes of others, and is linked with some other

sinful passion — vainglory, self-interest, or ambitiousness and so is directed against

one’s adversary in a way corresponding to this passion. In order to vanquish envy, not

only must the actual envy be opposed, but also those fundamental self-loving passions of

the soul from which it is born. “If you subdue the promptings of ambition in yourself,

then you will not envy a comrade or fellow worker who is more successful than you. If

you do not love money, you will not envy your neighbour when he gets rich.”

At the same time explain to the penitent the senselessness of malicious envy: “If

you think that the boss has not been fair to you but has, in your view, promoted an

unworthy person out of stupidity or prejudice, then it is not the person who has received

the promotion, but the boss himself who has given cause for dissatisfaction. If you think

that your comrade has won over the boss or the crowd by dishonourable means and

deception, then why did you not complain about him before, and why did your

complaints and anger get stronger only when he was promoted unjustly? Surely you see

that the deceit and pretense of which he is guilty are just as shameful whether he is

successful or not. So do not justify your envy as if it were righteous indignation. You

would probably not harbour such feelings if this person was not, as it were, your rival.

Perhaps you yourself wish to be freed from the envy which is tormenting you, but still

cannot get free of it? To begin with, stop deceiving yourself and take a sincere look at the

source of this feeling. It arises from self-love, from a desire for riches and glory, and all

this is extremely sinful. You should desire for yourself only salvation in Heaven, and on

earth, patience and a pure conscience. If his passion is once let into the soul, then even if

you become angry with it with holy wrath and struggle with it, it will even influence your

thoughts, making you interpret all the acts and words of the person who wishes you ill or

whom you envy, in a bad sense.”

With the development of parliamentary government and political parties and the

corresponding fall of truthfulness, people now form their opinions about one another —

both good and critical ones — not in accordance with their real impressions, but

depending entirely on their political party’s attitude to the other person’s party. Such

injustice, such dishonesty of thought, must be recognized as a shameful phenomenon, and

every Christian must keep himself from forming, at every temptation, a biased opinion of

his neighbour based on envy or malice and not on the truth. Such a precaution should be

the first step in struggling with the passion of envy, which is nourished by malicious

plotting on the part of the envious person against his rival. When it does not obtain this

food, the very passion of envy will gradually die away, especially if the tempted person

resolves unfailingly to verify dispassionately all his opinions about his neighbours,

restraining all feelings of hostility.

And further, Reverend Father, exhort your flock not to miss an opportunity to

recognize or mention all the good things that can truly be said about their rivals. If they

follow this path, not only will they expel all envy from their own hearts, but also they

will come to a state where they will not consider anyone to be their rival or enemy.