One of the things that we have to learn at an early age is how to play well with others. We probably all had the experience of playing with someone who didn’t follow the expected practices. I remember playing with one childhood friend who was infamous for not playing honorably.
A staple move was for him to insist that everyone walk across town to come play at his house and then, if things didn’t go just the way he wanted or if he started losing by too much, he would just quit and go inside, taking his ball with him so that no one else could continue playing either. It wasn’t enough that he wasn’t having fun. He had to make it to so that no one else could have fun either. We often fall into this same sin, although it probably doesn’t regard a two-hand-touch football game. This is the sin of envy and Scripture warns us of our dire need to avoid it.
So, what is envy? Envy is often distinguished from what we might call jealousy, although we usually confuse them in the way that we use the words today. They can be closely connected, but they are not the same thing.
Jealousy comes from the same root word as zealous and it is primarily concerned about achieving my own good. When I see someone else who achieves something or possesses something that I desire, I also want to enjoy it. This zealousness/jealousness, is not necessarily a bad thing because it does not necessarily exclude the good of my neighbor; only when it is desired inordinately does it become corrupted. It may be good if it pushes me to stretch and grow my own abilities so that I can achieve the same thing. When it remains pure, this jealousness/zealousness can be good. Scripture even describes God’s love as a jealous love because it is always seeking to win back his beloved—us.
Envy, though, is different. Envy sets our sights, not on achieving our own good, but on the good that another person possesses. Rather than rejoicing in them having it, envy is sadness at the sight of another’s opportunities, goods, talents, or achievements.
There are two kinds of goods that we can be envious of—worldly goods and spiritual goods. When we are envious of the worldly goods that others attain—perhaps for someone else being acknowledged— “From envy,” St. Augustine said, “are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by prosperity.”
Envy can manifest itself in biting sarcasm, in resentful comments, or in sinister criticisms that aim to tear down, rather than help in building up. Sometimes we display envy in a passive manner by omitting encouragement or praise and failing to call attention to another’s accomplishments when we should.
If when another person is given opportunities for personal growth, education, or travel, you feel bitterness, this arises from envy. If when another person demonstrates the ability to do something well, you yearn to criticize and disparage, this arises from envy. If when another person is praised or acknowledged, you feel a shiver of displeasure, this arises from envy.
These different manifestations of envy can even be mortally sinful because it is the opposite of charity. Both are concerned with the good of the other—charity seeks to achieve the good, envy seeks to destroy it. “If I can’t have it, then nobody can,” cries the juvenile soul.
Most grave of all would be for us to become envious of our neighbor’s spiritual goods. It is about this type of envy that our Lord preaches against in the Gospel we heard recently at Mass (Matthew 20:1-16). Laborers are envious of their companions because the land owner is generous and gives them extra wages out of his bountiful goodness. It is a metaphor for the spiritual gifts and graces that God gives to individuals. Envy for spiritual goods is especially serious because it is sorrowful at the generosity of God and is accounted as a sin against the Holy Spirit because we, in a sense, attack not only our neighbors good but the work of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual envy seeks to dampen or inhibit another’s relationship with God, or, if we are really unhappy, to destroy it altogether. Saint John Chrysostom said that one committing the sin of spiritual envy is “engaged in making [the Church] Christ’s body a corpse” because it attacks the life that vivifies it from within. For the life of a community or for a family, envy can be deadly, especially if we do not repent of it, it goes unconfessed, and we don’t actively seek paths of reconciliation. Envy, after all, is what led Cain to kill his brother Abel.
This is why Saint Augustine called envy a diabolical sin. “By the envy of the Devil, death entered the world” (Wis 2:24). St. Thomas Aquinas said envy is “the sin that occupies the chief place in the devil’s heart.”
Many theologians throughout history have speculated that Satan’s fall may have occurred when he glimpsed God’s plan for salvation—that the second person of the Trinity was going to humble himself and become man for the salvation of weak, fallen, and sinful men. Satan, who was the highest creature of all, at the thought that something so inferior to himself as human nature would be graced by being united to the nature of God in the person of Christ, Satan said, “That, I will not worship. I will not serve.” He grew envious of the gift bestowed on mankind, setting his will on destroying us thenceforth and, since he couldn’t affect God’s desire for union with man, he would work to snuff out man’s desire for union with God. Because of his envy for us who benefit so much from the generosity of God, “the first and highest of creatures became the last, and the last and lowest of all were raised to first.”
Why does the devil seek to make us envious? Satan, knowing beforehand the blessings that God wants to bestow on us, works to awaken envy toward our neighbor and thus avert our gaze from Jesus and his plan for us. With our gaze set desiring the goods that others have in a disordered way, we will be distracted and will not recognize the gifts and blessings that God was trying to give us and they would pass us by unseen. If only we kept our eyes fixed on Christ, what saints we could become!
How do we defend ourselves against envy? Gratitude and humility. If we actually think about and count our blessings each and every day, and seriously make a concentrated effort to see all that we have been blessed with, we’ll be so busy naming our graces that we won’t have time to worry about what our neighbor has that we lack. We will be humbled by God’s goodness and providence, recognizing that we are all nothing but beggars before Him.
To sum it all up: Envy is always sinful. It directly violates the Tenth Commandment and it is the most diabolic of all sins. It is the tendency to be saddened by another person’s good or gladdened by their misfortune. The devil inspires envy within us so that we will fail to see the gifts that God wants to give us. The best defense against it is to cultivate a sense of gratitude and humility and bear in mind the many blessings that have been bestowed on us by God.
The next time envy creeps up, muttering at the door of your heart, reject it and be zealous for your own happiness with a zeal that seeks to imitate the goodness and excellence in others. Rejoice when your neighbor is blessed, for when they are blessed, we benefit as members of the same Body.
Above all else, do not forget that God has given us Himself, a gift that all can come to possess in proportion to the longing for Him within their heart. He is the gift that none need possess to the exclusion of anyone else. In fact, it is in giving God to others that you will come to possess Him more fully for yourself.
Fr. Schwenka is assistant pastor of St. Michael Parish in Lincoln.
