On Jealousy and Envy

He goes about each of us, and like an enemy besieging those shut within, he examines the walls, and tries whether there is any part of the walls less firm and less trustworthy, through whose entrance he may penetrate to the interior. He sets before the eyes alluring forms and easy pleasures, so that he may destroy chastity through sight. He tempts the ears through melodious music, so that by the hearing of a sweeter sound he may dissolve and soften Christian vigour.

He provokes the tongue with abuse, he incites the hand to the wantonness of violence through provoking injuries; to make one a defrauder, he sets before him unjust gains; to capture the soul with money, he thrusts upon it ruinous profits; he promises earthly honours, so that he may take away heavenly ones; he displays false things, so that he may steal away true ones: and when he cannot deceive in secret, he threatens openly and manifestly, holding out the terror of a turbulent persecution, ever restless and ever hostile in subduing the servants of God, crafty in peace, violent in persecution.

Wherefore, dearly beloved brethren, against all the deceitful snares or open threats of the devil, the mind must stand instructed and armed, as ever ready to resist as the enemy is ever ready to attack. And, since his darts that creep upon us in secret are more frequent, and the more hidden and clandestine the assault, the more gravely and frequently it advances upon our wounds because it is less perceived, let us also be watchful to understand and repel those things from which the evil of envy and malice springs. For if anyone examines this thoroughly, he will find that nothing is more to be guarded against by a Christian, nothing more cautiously to be provided against, than that no one be taken captive by envy and malice; lest anyone, entangled in the blind snares of the deceiving enemy, while a brother is turned by envy to hatred of a brother, be unknowingly slain by his own sword. That we may gather this more fully and perceive it more clearly, let us return to its head and origin.

Let us see whence envy arose, and when and how it began. For so destructive an evil will be more easily avoided by us, if both the origin and the magnitude of that same evil be known.

Hence the devil, at the very beginning of the world, both perished first and caused others to perish. He, upheld by angelic majesty, he, accepted and dear to God, after he beheld man made in the image of God, burst forth into envy with malicious spite, not casting down another by the impulse of envy before he himself had first been cast down by envy, a captive before he was a captor, lost before he caused loss, while, with malice goading him, he snatches from man the grace of the immortality that had been given, he himself also lost what he had previously been. What an evil it is, dearly beloved brethren, by which an angel fell, by which that high and glorious sublimity could be beguiled and overthrown, by which he himself was deceived who deceived others!

From thence envy stalks upon the earth, while one who is about to perish through malice serves the master of perdition, while he imitates the devil who is envious, as it is written: But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world. They therefore imitate him who are of his party.

Hence finally the first hatreds of the new brotherhood, hence the wicked parricides began, while the unjust Cain envies the just Abel, while the evil man pursues the good with envy and malice. So great was the power of the fury of rivalry to bring the crime to completion, that neither the love of a brother, nor the enormity of the wickedness, nor the fear of God, nor the punishment of the offence was considered. He was unjustly oppressed who had first shown forth justice; he suffered hatred who had not known how to hate; he was impiously slain who, in dying, did not resist. And that Esau was an enemy to his brother Jacob arose from envy. For, because the latter had received the blessing of the father, the former blazed up into hatred and persecution with the flames of malice. And that Joseph's brothers sold him, the cause of the selling descended from rivalry.

After he had simply set forth to his brothers, as a brother, what had been shown to him as prosperous in his visions, the malevolent mind burst forth into envy. Also that king Saul hated David, that he desired to kill one innocent, merciful, gentle, patient in mildness, with persecutions often repeated—what else provoked him but the goad of envy? Because, when Goliath had been slain, and so great an enemy destroyed by divine aid and favour, the people, in admiration, broke forth into praises of David with the testimony of their proclamation, Saul conceived the furies of enmity and persecution from malice. And lest I make it long by reviewing each case, let us attend to the destruction of a whole people perishing at once. Did not the Jews perish for this reason, that they preferred to envy Christ rather than to believe in him? Disparaging the great works which he performed, they were deceived with envy blinding them, and could not open the eyes of their heart to know divine things.

Considering these things, dearly beloved brethren, let us fortify our breasts, dedicated to God, watchfully and bravely against so great a destructive evil. Let the death of others profit our salvation; let the punishment of the imprudent bring health to the provident. There is no reason for anyone to suppose that this evil is contained within a single form, or enclosed within brief limits and a narrow boundary. The manifold and fruitful destruction of envy extends widely. It is the root of all evils, the source of calamities, the seedbed of offences, the material of faults. From it hatred arises, from it animosity proceeds. Envy inflames avarice, while one who cannot be content with his own sees another who is wealthier. Envy stirs up ambition, while one sees another higher in honours. With envy blinding our senses and reducing the inner recesses of the mind to its dominion, the fear of God is despised, the teaching of Christ is neglected, the day of judgement is not foreseen.

Pride puffs up, cruelty embitters, treachery transgresses, impatience shakes, discord rages, anger seethes; and he who has become subject to another's power can no longer restrain or govern himself. Hence the bond of the Lord's peace is broken, hence brotherly charity is violated, hence truth is corrupted, unity is rent asunder, there is a rushing forth into heresies and schisms, while priests are disparaged, while bishops are envied, while one either complains that he himself was not rather ordained, or disdains to bear another set over him. Hence the proud man kicks back, hence the perverse man rebels from envy, from rivalry—an enemy not of the man but of his honour, through animosity and malice.

But what a moth of the soul it is, what a corruption of thoughts, what great rust of the breast, to envy in another either his virtue or his happiness, that is, to hate in him either his own merits or the divine benefits, to turn the good things of others to one's own harm, to be tormented by the prosperity of the illustrious, to make the glory of others one's own punishment, and as it were to bring certain executioners close to one's own breast, to apply torturers to one's own thoughts and feelings, who tear one with inward torments, who assail the secrets of the heart with the claws of malevolence! No food can be joyful for such persons, no drink can be pleasant. There is ever sighing and groaning and grieving; and while malice is never laid aside by the envious, the besieged breast is torn without intermission day and night. Other evils have an end, and whatever offence is committed is finished with the completion of the offence.

In the adulterer the crime ceases when the fornication is accomplished; in the robber the wickedness is at rest when the murder is committed; and the possession of the plunder sets a limit to the plunderer's rapacity; and the completed deception puts a bound to the deceiver. Envy has no end, a perpetually abiding evil and a sin without end; and the more he whom one envies has advanced with better success, the more does the envious man burn into a greater conflagration with the fires of malice.

Hence a threatening countenance, a fierce look, pallor on the face, trembling on the lips, gnashing of teeth, raving words, unbridled abuse, a hand ready for the violence of murder, even if for the moment empty of a sword, yet armed with the hatred of a frenzied mind. And therefore the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms: Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way. And again: The sinner will watch the just man, and will gnash his teeth at him. But the Lord will laugh at him, for he foreseeth that his day will come. These the blessed apostle Paul designates and marks out, saying: The poison of asps is under their lips, and their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways, who have not known the way of peace, and there is no fear of God before their eyes.

The evil is far lighter and the danger less when the members are wounded by the sword. The cure is easy where the wound is visible, and what is seen is quickly brought to health when a remedy comes to aid. The wounds of envy are hidden and concealed; nor do they admit the remedy of a healing physician, those wounds which have shut themselves within the recesses of conscience with a blind pain. Whoever you are that are envious and malicious, you see how treacherous, how destructive, how hostile you are to those whom you hate. You are the enemy of no one's welfare more than your own. There is ever an enemy in your breast, destruction is enclosed within, you are bound and fettered in the inescapable coils of chains, you are a captive with envy holding dominion, and no consolations come to your aid. It is a persisting evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate one who is happy.

And therefore, dearly beloved brethren, the Lord, providing against this danger lest anyone should fall into the snare of death through envy of a brother, when the disciples asked him who among them was the greatest, said: Whosoever shall be least among you all, he shall be great. He cut off all rivalry by his answer, he rooted out and removed every cause and material of biting envy. A disciple of Christ may not envy, may not be jealous. There can be no contention among us about exaltation: we grow from humility to the highest things, we have learned whereby we may please. Finally the apostle Paul also, instructing and admonishing that we who, illuminated by the light of Christ, have escaped the darkness of nightly conduct, should walk in deeds and works of light, writes and says: The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light.

Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy. If the darkness has departed from your breast, if the night has been driven away from it, if the gloom has been wiped away, if the splendour of day has illuminated your senses, if you have begun to be a man of light, do the things that are Christ's, because Christ is light and day.

Why do you rush into the darkness of envy? Why do you wrap yourself in the cloud of malice? Why do you extinguish all the light of peace and charity with the blindness of envy? Why do you return to the devil whom you had renounced? Why do you make yourself like Cain? For that he who has envied and hated his brother is bound by the guilt of murder, the apostle John declares in his Epistle, saying: He who hateth his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. And again: He who saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth; because the darkness hath blinded his eyes. He who hateth his brother, he says, walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth.

For he goes unknowingly into hell, he is cast headlong ignorant and blind into punishment, departing, that is, from the light of Christ who warns and says: I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now he follows Christ who persists in his precepts, who walks along the way of his teaching, who follows his footsteps and paths, who imitates what Christ both taught and did, according to what Peter also exhorts and admonishes, saying: Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his footsteps.

We ought to remember by what name Christ calls His people, by what title He designates His flock. He calls them sheep, that Christian innocence may be equated with sheep; He calls them lambs, that the simplicity of mind may imitate the simple nature of lambs. Why does the wolf lurk beneath the clothing of sheep? Why does he who falsely calls himself a Christian bring disgrace upon the flock of Christ? To put on the name of Christ and not to walk in the way of Christ—what else is this but a transgression of the divine name, a desertion of the path of salvation?

Since He Himself teaches and says that he who keeps the commandments comes to life, and that he is wise who hears His words and does them, and that he also shall be called the greatest teacher in the kingdom of heaven who does and so teaches; that what has been well and profitably preached will then be of benefit to the preacher, if what is uttered by the mouth is fulfilled by subsequent deeds. But what did the Lord more frequently impress upon His disciples, what did He command to be kept and observed above all else among His saving admonitions and heavenly precepts, but that we should love one another with the same love with which He Himself loved His disciples? But how does he hold the peace or the charity of the Lord who, with envy intervening, can be neither peaceable nor beloved?

Therefore also the Apostle Paul, when he was setting forth the merits of peace and charity, and when he was firmly asserting and teaching that neither faith, nor almsgiving, nor even the suffering of a confessor and martyr would profit him unless he had kept the bonds of charity whole and inviolate, added and said: Charity is long-suffering, charity is kind, charity envieth not; teaching and showing, that is, that he can hold charity who shall have been long-suffering and kind and free from envy and malice. Likewise in another place, when he was admonishing that a man now filled with the Holy Spirit and made a son of God by heavenly birth should pursue only spiritual and divine things, he sets down and says: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto little ones in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not meat, for you were not able as yet, but neither indeed are you now able. For you are yet carnal.

For whereas there is among you envying and contention and dissensions, are you not carnal and walk according to man?

The vices and carnal sins must be crushed, dearest brethren, and the harmful corruption of the earthly body must be trodden down with spiritual vigour, lest, while we roll back again to the conduct of the old man, we be entangled in deadly snares, the Apostle forewarning us of this same thing with foresight and salutary counsel: Therefore, he says, brethren, let us not live according to the flesh: for if you live according to the flesh, you shall begin to die: but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

If we are sons of God, if we have now begun to be His temples, if, having received the Holy Spirit, we live holily and spiritually, if we have lifted our eyes from the earth to heaven, if we have raised our breast, full of God and Christ, toward things above and divine, let us do nothing but what is worthy of God and Christ, as the Apostle also stirs and exhorts us: If you be risen, he says, with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with Him in glory.

We therefore who in Baptism have died and been buried according to the carnal sins of the old man, who have risen with Christ through heavenly regeneration, let us both think and do the things that are Christ's, as the same Apostle again teaches and admonishes, saying: The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, such also are they that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such also are they that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthy, let us bear also the image of the heavenly. But we cannot bear the heavenly image unless in that which we have now begun to be, we present the likeness of Christ.

For this is to have changed what you were and to have begun to be what you were not, that the divine birth may shine in you, that the God-given discipline may answer to God the Father, that God may be made glorious in man by the honour and praise of living, He Himself exhorting and admonishing and promising a mutual recompense to those who glorify Him: Those, He says, who glorify me I will glorify; and he who despiseth me shall be despised. Forming and preparing us for this glorification, and setting forth in His Gospel the likeness of God the Father, the Lord and Son of God says: You have heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.

If it is a joyful and glorious thing for men to have children like themselves, and the having begotten is then more delightful if the offspring answers to the father with matching features, how much greater is the joy in God the Father when someone is so born spiritually that the divine nobility is proclaimed in his deeds and praises? What is the palm of righteousness, what the crown, to be such a one of whom God does not say: I have brought up children and exalted them, but they have despised me. Let Christ rather praise you and invite you to the reward, saying: Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

With these meditations the mind must be strengthened, dearest brethren, and against all the darts of the devil it must be fortified by exercises of this kind. Let divine reading be in our hands, the Lord's meditation in our thoughts; let unceasing prayer by no means cease; let salutary work persevere. Let us be always occupied with spiritual deeds, so that as often as the enemy draws near, as often as he attempts to approach, he may find the breast closed against him and armed. For the crown of a Christian man is not one only, that which is received in time of persecution: peace also has its own crowns, with which, after varied and manifold conflict, the adversary having been prostrated and subdued, the victors are crowned. To have subdued lust is the palm of continence. To have fought back against anger, against injury, is the crown of patience. To despise money is a triumph over avarice. To endure the adversities of the world with confidence in things to come is the praise of faith.

And he who is not proud in prosperity gains glory from humility. And he who is inclined to the mercy of cherishing the poor obtains the recompense of heavenly treasure. And he who knows not how to envy, and who, unanimous and gentle, loves his brethren, is honoured with the reward of love and peace. In this arena of virtues we run daily, to these palms and crowns of righteousness we arrive without any intermission of time.

That you also may be able to arrive at these—you who had been possessed by envy and malice—cast off all that wickedness by which you were formerly held, reform yourself with saving steps toward the way of eternal life. Pluck out from your breast the thorns and thistles, that the Lord's seed may enrich you with fertile fruit, that the divine and spiritual harvest may abound unto a plentiful crop. Vomit out the poisons of gall, expel the venom of discord, let the mind which serpentine malice had infected be purged, let all the bitterness which had settled within be soothed by the sweetness of Christ. If from the sacrament of the cross you take both food and drink, let the wood which at Marah availed in figure unto sweetness of taste avail for you in truth unto the gentleness of a soothed breast, and you will not labour for the remedy of a restored health. Where you had been wounded, there be healed.

Love those whom you had hated before; cherish those whom you envied with unjust detraction. Imitate the good, if you are able to follow them. But if you cannot follow them, at least rejoice and congratulate those who are better. Make yourself a sharer with them in united love, make yourself cleaving to them in the fellowship of charity and the bond of brotherhood. Your debts will be forgiven when you also have forgiven; your sacrifices will be accepted when you come to God in peace; your thoughts and deeds will be divinely directed when you have thought upon those things which are divine and just, as it is written: The heart of a man thinketh just things, that his steps may be directed by the Lord.

But you have many things to think upon. Think upon Paradise, into which Cain does not enter, who slew his brother through envy. Think upon the heavenly kingdom, to which the Lord admits none but those who are concordant and of one mind. Think upon the fact that only those can be called sons of God who are peacemakers, who by heavenly birth and divine law answer to the likeness of God the Father and of Christ, being united. Think upon the fact that we stand before the eyes of God, that with Him watching and judging we run the course of our conduct and life, that we can then at last attain to behold Him if we now delight Him who sees us by our deeds, if we show ourselves worthy of His grace and indulgence, if, destined always to please in the kingdom, we please in this world first.