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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I am often envious of others.

It is a bad feeling that distances me from others and makes me feel bad.

I ask you for advice on how to overcome the vice of envy. I have been confessing this to the priest for some time, but I cannot get rid of it.

I also ask you how to deal with the people I envy: I know I have to be good to them, and I try to be, but at the same time I’m afraid of being untrue to them.

Thank you for everything you do, I have read more of your responses and they have been very helpful to me.

I pray for you.

Francesco

Response from the priest

Dear Francesco,

1. For the sake of clarity to our visitors, envy does not mean wanting what others have.

So far, in itself, there is nothing wrong with that.

Desiring holiness, science, or the competence that others posseed, who would dare to say that it is an evil, a sin?

2. By envy, on the other hand, as a capital vice, we mean a certain sadness for the good of others.

We would like the other not to have that good or that gift, because this prevents us from emerging or making a good impression.

As can be seen, envy is intimately related to pride.

3. It must be said with all honesty that at least everyone is subjected to temptations of envy.

It is a consequence of our evil inclination, due to original sin.

Therefore, it is a question that touches everyone closely, some more and some less.

4. Since envy is a certain sadness for the good of others, it must be overcome as any other sadness is overcome.

God himself teaches us the way through the mouth of James. We read in his letter: “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ” (James 5:13).

The current translation of the New International Version (NIV) removed the word “sad” and replaced it with “in trouble”.

Instead, the version of the Volgata is beautiful and explicit: “Tristatur aliquis vestrum? Oret ” (is anyone among you sad? Pray).

5. Why this invitation to pray?

Because prayer helps our hearts to conform with God’s heart.

As we go forward in praying, we begin to love our neighbor with the heart of God and to be pleased with the goods that the Lord has given him.

By doing so, envy goes away, leaving in its place true charity that delights in the good of others.

This is why St. Paul says that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Cor 13,4) but “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor 13,6).

6. Father Alfonso Rodriguez, great spiritual author of the Society of Jesus, wrote:

“St. Cassian says that an excellent remedy against any kind of sadness, whatever its origin or cause, is to take refuge in prayer and gather our thoughts in God and in the hope of that eternal life that He promised us; thus all the clouds clear away, and the spirit of sadness flees, as when David sang while playing the lyre and the evil spirit departed from Saul.

The apostle St. James suggests it to us in his canonical letter: is anyone among you sad? Pray (James, 5:13, Vulgata).

The Prophet David assures us that he used it: “My soul did not want to be consoled. I remembered God and was full of joy ”(Ps 76,4, Vulgata).

Thinking, Lord, of you and your commandments, and your promises, is for me like a song of joy; this comforts and rejoices in my exile and in my pilgrimage, in all my pains and in my abandonment.

If sometimes a friend’s conversation is enough to make us lose our melancholy and rejoice, what will not do the conversation with God?

Therefore, the servant of God and the good religious must not seek the remedy for their sadness in speaking, in distracting themselves, in reading vain and profane things, and not even in singing them, but in taking refuge in God, and recollecting themselves in prayer: this is what must be the their comfort “.

7. Father Rodriguez goes on to say: “The saints meditate on the account of the Holy Scripture: after the flood, forty days passed, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent the raven to see if the earth was dry, so that he could disembark; the raven did not return; He then sent the dove which, according to Holy Scripture, not finding a place to lay the sole of its foot, returned to him in the ark (Gen 8:9).

The saints wonder: Since the raven did not return it is evident that he found where to lay the sole of his foot; so why does Scripture say that the dove found no place to lay it? The answer is that the raven landed on the garbage and the corpses, while the dove, simple white and beautiful, not feeding on the corpses, not landing on the garbage, came back, because it didn’t find where to lay the sole of its foot, it didn’t find where to rest.

In the same way, the true servant of God and the good religious find neither contentment nor recreation among those dead things, in the vain entertainments of the world, and they return, like the dove, to the ark of the heart; their rest and comfort in all their hardships and sadness lies in having recourse to prayer to remember God, to spend a moment before the Blessed Sacrament, consoling themselves with Christ, giving him an account of their troubles and concluding: How could I, Lord, be sad, in your house and in your company?”.

8. And he concludes: “Commenting on these words of the royal Prophet:” You have put more joy in my heart “(Ps 4.7) St. Augustine notes: The Prophet here teaches us not to seek the joy that comes from external things, but the joy that flows from within from the secret cell of the heart, in which Christ our Redeemer says that we must pray to the Eternal Father.

Sulpizio Severo tells that, for S. Martin the bishop, prayer was a relief to his labors.

Like the blacksmiths to relieve their fatigue give a few empty blows on the anvil, he, when he was tired, prayed.

It is said of another servant of God that, while he was in his cell with a soul full of sadness and incredible affliction -God in certain times used to visit him- he heard a voice within him that said to him: What are you doing here idle, consuming you in vain? Get up, and meditate on my passion!

He got up immediately and began to meditate on the mysteries of the Passion of Christ; sadness disappeared immediately; he felt consoled and revived, and continuing in that practice he never felt that temptation again ”(Alfonso Rodriguez, Exercise of perfection, p. 1003-1104).

9. It is not only with prayer that envy is overcome. But this is the first and irreplaceable step.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates another when it says: “Envy is often caused by pride; the baptized will undertake to live in humility “(CCC 2540).

The good enjoyed by others is a beautiful warning for us: it helps to keep us in humility and to remind us of what we are before the Lord.

10. St. John Chrysostom proposes a third remedy: “Would you like to see God glorified by you?

Well, rejoice in your brother’s progress, and behold, God will be glorified by you.

God will be praised – it will be said – by the victory over envy won by his servant, who was able to make the merits of others the reason for his joy “(Homilia ad Romanos, 7, 3).

11. Therefore, there are three resources that are offered to you towards the people you feel envious of: prayer, the exercise of humility, and satisfaction with the gifts they have received from God.

I hope you will soon make great strides in this important battle. I assure you of my remembrance to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo