Envy

one

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.

two

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.

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.

Aquinas says this can even be a mortal sin.

-      If done knowingly and willingly because it is a grave matter.

-      Why?

-      Because it is a mortal sin to kill someone unjustly and one’s reputation is almost as valuable as their life - so to kill one’s reputation is like committing murder.

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

But if we fight against gossip, we can become saints.

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

three

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.

a.  Want good for others: even competitors, even enemies

b.  Think good of others: give them the benefit of the doubt, make excuses for them

c.   Speak well of others: every person has the right to a good reputation.

C.S. Lewis wrote, God, “wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.”

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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, power, and attention are finite resources – the more one person has of them the less another person has.

So, if money, power, and fame are what we care about, then we’ll resent it anytime someone else gets some – 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.