Envy

ENVY, the sixth of the seven capital sins, is sadness of soul at the welfare of another; it is sorrow at another's good fortune. You see somebody else happy, with nice clothes or good looks or talent or riches, and instead of being glad at his good fortune, you are sorry at it, so that you wish he did not have it. That is Envy.

We are strictly bound as Christians to love one another, and hence to rejoice in one another's happiness; but this bitter and loathsome vice would make us do just the opposite. Envious people hate others instead of loving them, and grieve at their happiness instead of rejoicing in it.

Envy keeps company with pride and selfishness. A person is so very selfish that he wants to have everything himself, and so proud that he thinks nobody else is deserving of anything; then when he beholds another person successful and prosperous, or gifted, or well-dressed, it fills him with a bitter and hateful sadness; as if another's good fortune were his own bad fortune, or as if another's excellence or good points took away something from his own advantages. This sadness is envy.

It is possible to feel a sadness, a little bit like this, but ever so much more unlike it, which would not be envy—a sadness of indignation or of fear or of emulousness. Suppose that you see a man placed in charge of a savings bank where people deposit their money, and you are sorry for his success in getting that position because you happen to know that he is dishonest and therefore unworthy of it; that would not be envy, but rather what theologians might call the sadness of indignation. Or you see a cruel man made master of the school which you attend, and, being afraid of him, you are sorry at his advancement; that would be sadness of fear, rather than envy. Then there is emulousness or emulation. A girl observes some little friend of hers wearing a very pretty new dress; she rejoices in her friend's happiness and would not deprive her of it for the world, even if she could; but while just as friendly as ever, and glad that the other has new clothes, she is a little bit sorry that she has not some; that sorrow is not envy. And for another example of the sadness of emulation, suppose that two boys are striving for a prize. Of course, one has to win and one to lose. Well, the one who loses is naturally sorry that he has lost. He congratulates the other though, and he means it too, because he is really glad of his success, but at the same time he feels a certain sadness at his own failure. That sadness is not envy, either.

But if you are sorrowful at your neighbor's good fortune simply because you don't love your neighbor enough to be glad at his happiness, or because your selfishness can't endure his prosperity, or because your pride is wounded by his advancement or his advantages, that sorrow is envy, a capital sin and one of the worst of them. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self" (Matt., XXII., 39); and if you do love your neighbor, you will be glad at everything good that he has and at everything good which befalls him. But when one feels sorrow rather than gladness at one's neighbor's welfare or his good parts, then instead of loving one's neighbor as every Christian should, one either hates him or envies him. That is the difference between Christian charity and un-Christian envy. Charity, or love for our neighbor, rejoices at the good fortune of others as though it were one's own good fortune; while envy grieves over it and feels sore about it as though it were misfortune to oneself.

Now, every advantage and every good quality which a person can have, may be the cause of envy. You can envy a person, if you are bad enough, for his riches, for his success, for the position and honours which he has won. You can envy persons for having gained the favour of their teachers or other superiors, or for having made friends and companions of the very ones you wanted to be your companions; and thus jealousy, "the green-eyed monster," as the poet calls it, is sometimes close to envy. You can envy a person, if you are foolish enough, for her manners, accomplishments, good looks, fine clothes. And talents, virtues and even graces, may all be the occasions of envy.

The first example of this vice was the father of all vices, Satan, the arch-enemy of God and man. He saw mankind, created by a loving God, placed on earth in a paradise of pleasures, and destined afterwards to fill those very places in heaven which he and his fellow-demons had lost; and consumed with bitter envy, he tempted mankind to sin. Thus "by the envy of the devil death came into the world" (Wisd., II., 24). Afterwards the first murder which ever stained this earth, was prompted by the envy of Cain for Abel, the murder of a brother by a brother (Gen., IV.). Still later on, through envy, another brother planned to kill his brother, when Esau "hated Jacob for the blessing wherewith his father had blessed him and said in his heart: 'The days will come of the mourning for my father, and I will kill my brother Jacob'" (Gen., XXVII., 41). So also it was through envy for their brother that the sons of Jacob sold Joseph to the merchants. And again it was out of envy that King Saul, who had formerly been so good a man and so noble a king, persecuted the valiant David. Likewise this vice had much to do with bringing to pass the greatest crime of human history, the crucifixion of our Divine Saviour; for St. Mark in his Gospel plainly tells us that Pilate "knew that the chief priests had delivered Him up out of envy" (Mark, XV., 10).

We see the awful effects of this vice. Widespread it may be, common among men and even commoner perhaps among women and children; but that doesn't make it any better. It causes sins beyond number, and in some cases the most detestable of sins. It is an ignoble and grovelling vice, unworthy of independent men and women; for it is foolish people who give way to anger, but it is small and cowardly people who yield to envy— "anger indeed killeth the foolish, and envy slayeth the little one," says the Book of Job (Job, V., 2). How then, if a person has even a grain of respect for himself, with any desire to retain his self-respect—how can a person stoop so low as to grieve and repine at another's happiness? We especially who belong to the great Church, with whom the Holy Ghost is forever present: "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be made desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another" (Gal., V., 25-26).

Envy is likewise a most ungrateful vice, for frequently it murmurs at the very things for which it ought to be glad and grateful. Thus, while anger is aroused by the faults of others, envy is often excited by their virtues. And to murmur in one's heart at the good qualities of other people, to be discontented and sorrowful because they enjoy blessings which we would wish to take from them, is like grieving at the goodness of God, Who has poured those blessings upon them. Sometimes it would seem as if the envious person wanted God to be good to him only, and not to anyone else. So we may be certain that God will always punish envy, either in this world or in the world to come. "An evil man shall inherit reproach and shame; so shall every sinner that is envious and double-tongued," says the word of God (Ecclus., VI., 1).

And this vice, so ignoble in itself and so ungrateful, is also the source of many other sins. Hatred often springs from envy. So does joy at the misfortune of others. And both of these are very foul and very blackening sins. "He that rejoiceth at another man's ruin, shall not be unpunished" (Prov., XVII., 5). From envy also many grievous sins of the tongue are born. People who are small enough to envy others will also, in some cases at least, be mean enough to lie about others. They will stop at nothing in order to punish a person for having something desirable which they themselves have not. It is the very nature of envy to want to blacken what is bright, to pull down what is high up, to smirch and defile what is clean. The higher, the brighter, the purer anything is, the more it is likely to be envied. Hence very many foul falsehoods which non-Catholic writers have told about the Church of Christ; hence also slander, with its wicked lies about private persons, detraction, rash judgments, and tale-bearings, may all be numbered among the children of envy.

The envious person is so grieved and tortured by his neighbor's success or good fortune, that he goes about doing what little he can to chastise him for it. He babbles false gossip against his reputation. He finds out something true against him, which is more or less of a secret, and takes pains to spread it from one to another until it becomes public news. He hardly ever peddles out an unkind truth of this kind but that he makes it much bigger and worse than it really is. He does a great deal of harm in this world by his bitter and uncharitable tongue, and he invariably receives an awful chastisement for it either in this world or the other.

The envious person breaks up friendships by his tale-bearing, running to and fro from one friend to the other with unpleasant stories, until they are friends no longer. "When the wood faileth, the fire shall go out; and when the tale-bearer is taken away, contentions shall cease," says the Book of Proverbs (Prov., XXVI., 20). And again it says: "Six things there are which the Lord hateth and the seventh His soul detesteth: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; a heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into mischief, a deceitful witness that uttereth lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren" (Prov., VI., 16-19). Certainly it is an awful sin to sow discord among brethren, to destroy friendships and separate true friends. A true friend is one of the greatest helps that God can give to man or woman, not only for the affairs of this life, but also for the more important business of saving one's soul. "A faithful friend is a strong defence; and he that hath found him, hath found a treasure. Nothing can be compared to a faithful friend, and no weight of gold and silver is able to countervail the goodness of his fidelity. A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality; and they that fear the Lord, shall find him" (Ecclus., VI., 14-16). And to deprive anyone of his friends by envious tale-bearing and filthy gossip, not only works a grievous injury to the one thus deprived, but renders the tale-bearer himself, or herself, contemptible beyond expression. "The tale-bearer shall defile his own soul, and shall be hated by all" (Ecclus., XXI., 31).

"Hast thou heard a word against thy neighbor? Let it die within thee," says the Holy Book (Ecclus., XIX., 10). We should not even listen to tale-bearers, but should change the subject, pleasantly and civilly if possible. At any rate, in some way or other we ought to discourage the contemptible practice. When people are talking against you, there may be at least patience in your enduring it; but when they are talking against others to you, there is no virtue of any kind in listening to them.

So let us strive hard with God's help to shut out this foul vice of envy from our hearts and from our tongues. If you have a good heart, you will neither cherish envy in your soul, nor allow filthy gossip about anyone, whether false or true, to issue from your lips. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Luke, VI., 45). Thus in a good heart both envy and the sins which spring from it will be stifled and destroyed.

Shame upon those small and cowardly souls who deliberately smirch themselves with this vice! How pitiable it is to see sisters envying each other, or brothers who can not agree. Well, we are all brothers, sons of one God, redeemed by one Christ, destined for one and the same everlasting heaven; and shall we grow green with envy (as they say), or yellow or livid, because others are better off than we? Grieve and be miserable because they have passed us a little in the race of life? We are all members of one body; and does the eye envy the ear, or the foot envy the hand? It is the inspired St. Paul who tells us that the Church is one body. Christ is its head, and we are its members. "And if one member suffer anything," St. Paul says, "all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it" (I. Cor., XII., 26).

Would that we might be like those first Catholics of the early Christian times, when all, or nearly all, were saints of God—when "the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul" (Acts, IV., 32). Then, in place of sorrowing at another's good fortune, we would ever "rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep" (Rom., XII., 15). Even as we do not envy the sun for shining but rather rejoice in its light, so with Christian charity we would ever delight in the happiness of our fellow-men and women. We would congratulate one another and praise one another, not with deceitful flattery, but with honest, hearty praise, generously given wherever we thought it was deserved and that it might do good. We would pray for one another. And above all, we would love one another, not forgetting that our blessed Saviour said to His Apostles, and through them to us, on the very night before He suffered and died: "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another" (John, XIII., 34-35).