The Primary Indicator of Envy

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!”

Envy is a particularly perverse sin – other sins want something good in a disordered way, but Envy is sadness because something good has happened.                                              

That’s why envy is so diabolical. In fact, the Bible tells us that “it was through the devil’s envy that sin entered the world.”

And that envy, believe it or not, has roots very deep in most of our hearts

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Gossip is the primary indicator of Envy

Most people don’t confess envy – even though they resent it when someone else is more popular, more wealthy, more beautiful than they are. We always claim to resent those people for some other reason, but very, very often, it’s simply because they intimidate us – because we’re envious.

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.

Envy caused Cain to kill Abel, and it causes us to murder the reputations of our neighbors through gossip

We love to spread the news of other people’s faults and misfortunes, but we claim not to enjoy it. We say “Oh, have you heard? It’s so awful, I feel so bad for them!” – and then we relate the awful thing with enormous relish.

The Fathers of the Church used to say, “What does it matter if you occasionally fast from meat, when you constantly eat the flesh of your brother through gossip?”

Gossip isn’t just a kind of murder – it’s a kind of twisted cannibalism; gorging ourselves on another’s evil.

If we fight against gossip, we can become saints.

So, figure out what those situations are that you usually gossip – and then DON’T!

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Envy sorrows at another’s good – but zeal is inspired by another’s good.                                    

When we read the lives of the saints, we shouldn’t be envious of their virtue, but we should be dissatisfied with our own mediocrity.

That dissatisfaction becomes zeal – a resolve to pursue the same excellence that others have attained before us.

When we are inspired by another’s good to pursue that good for ourselves, then we can celebrate that good in others by emulating it in our own lives.

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We get over Envy – loving others as we love ourselves

The only real way to overcome envy is to see someone else’s good as a benefit to ourselves

    I.        A father who loves his son isn’t envious that his son is the top scorer on his basketball team – his son’s success makes him proud – it’s a gift to him

  II.        My wife isn’t envious of my income – because we have a shared account!

III.        And if seeing other people happy makes me happy, then their happiness is my happiness.

So the only way to overcome envy is to follow Our Lord’s command: love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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Finally, if we are disgusted by our envy and really want to get rid of it  - 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.

Join Archbishop Nuamann and I and 1000s of Rosary Warriors this next Sunday June 5 for a Rosary tailgate and Prayer Rally for the Supreme Court to end Abortion in the US and the Value them both Amendment in Kansas

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