On Jealousy and Envy

​What a moth of the soul indeed, what a consumption of thoughts, how great a rust of the heart is it to envy in another either his virtue or his happiness—that is, to hate in him either his own merits or divine blessings, to convert others’ goods into one’s own evil, to be tormented by the prosperity of illustrious men, to make the glory of others one’s own punishment, and, as it were, to apply certain executioners to one’s own heart, to bring tortors to one’s own thoughts and senses who tear oneself with internal torments, who beat the secrets of the heart with the claws of malevolence! No food can be joyful to such persons, no drink can be pleasant. There is always sighing and groaning and grieving; and as long as envy is never laid aside by the envious, the besieged heart is torn without intermission day and night. Other evils have a limit, and whatever sin is committed is finished by the consummation of the crime. In the adulterer, the offense ceases when the rape is perpetrated; in the robber, the crime rests when homicide is committed; and the possessed prey sets a limit to the rapacity of the plunderer, and the completed deception puts a measure to the forger. Jealousy has no limit; it is a continually remaining evil and a sin without end. And by how much he who is envied progresses with better success, by so much the envious person burns into a greater fire with the flames of envy.

​Hence arise a threatening look, a grim countenance, paleness in the face, trembling on the lips, gnashing of teeth, rabid words, unbridled insults, a hand ready for the violence of slaughter, even if for the time empty of a sword, yet armed with the hatred of a maddened mind. And therefore the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms: ‘Do not envy him who walks well in his way.’ And again: ‘The sinner will watch the just man, and will gnash his teeth at him. But God will laugh at him, since He foresees that his day will come.’ These the blessed apostle Paul designates and points out, saying: ‘The poison of asps is under their lips, and their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and calamity are in their ways, who have not known the way of peace, nor is there the fear of God before their eyes.’

​The evil is much lighter and the danger is less when limbs are wounded by a sword. The cure is easy where the wound is visible, and that which is seen is quickly brought to health when a remedy comes to help. The wounds of jealousy are concealed and hidden, nor do they admit the remedy of a healing cure, which have shut themselves up within the hiding-place of the conscience with blind pain. Whoever you are that are envious and malignant, consider how insidious, pernicious, and hostile you are to those whom you hate! You are an enemy to no one’s safety more than your own. Whoever he is whom you persecute with jealousy will be able to escape and avoid you; you cannot flee from yourself. Wherever you are, your adversary is with you, the enemy is always in your breast, destruction is shut up within; you are bound and fettered with the inescapable bond of chains, you are a captive under the dominion of jealousy, nor does any comfort come to help you. It is a persistent evil to persecute a man belonging to God’s grace; it is a calamity without remedy to hate a happy man.

​And therefore, beloved brethren, the Lord, providing against this danger lest anyone through jealousy of a brother should run into the snare of death, when His disciples asked Him who among them was the greatest, said: ‘He who shall be the least among you all, he shall be great.’ He cut off all rivalry by His response; He rooted out and cut away all cause and material of biting envy. It is not permitted to a disciple of Christ to be jealous, it is not permitted to envy. There cannot be among us a contention for exaltation. From humility we grow to the highest things; we have learned how to please [God]. Finally, the apostle Paul also, instructing and warning us that we, who have been illuminated by the light of Christ and have escaped the darkness of night-time conduct, should walk in the deeds and works of light, writes and says: ‘The night has passed, and the day has drawn near. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.’ If darkness has departed from your heart, if night has been dispelled thence, if gloom has been wiped away, if the splendor of the day has illuminated your senses, if you have begun to be a man of light, do the things which are of Christ, because Christ is light and day.