The Primary Indicator of Envy

Envy is the vice that makes us sad when something good happens to someone else.                                                 

Envy springs from an essentially competitive mindset.    

It says, “I am diminished by another’s good, and I am increased by someone else’s downfall”

Envy is the opposite of gratitude. Instead of saying “Thank you! What I have is so much more than I deserve,” it says “I want what he has! I want what she has!”

But the greatest litmus test of envy is gossip. Just as envy sorrows at another’s good, so does it rejoice at another’s problems. And that rejoicing is expressed in gossip.

If we want to get rid of envy - then care only about things that aren’t diminished by other people having them

Property and power and other’s people’s attention are finite resources – the more one person has of them the less another person has.

So, if money and power and fame are what we care about, then we’ll resent it anytime someone else gets even a little bit – since these are competitive goods.

But knowledge, virtue, holiness and the love of God – these things don’t get smaller when lots of people have them.

So, these should be the focus of our lives. If they are, we’ll never grudge anyone else their good fortune. And they're the only goods that can make us happy anyway.