Acting Against Our Nature
On this Good Friday, as we wrap up our look at the seven deadly sins, we finish with the sin that started it all. The sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden was pride and lack of trust, but the sin of Lucifer, the bearer of light, was the sin of envy.
Envy is a sadness in the presence of the excellence or goodness of others. Saint Thomas Aquinas speaks of it as a sin against charity. Charity is the willing of the good of others. Whereas envy, on the other hand, sees their good as a threat or diminishment of our good. We resent what he or she has or what he or she is.
It is not necessarily that we even want what they have (which may be the sin of covetousness). Rather, envy begrudges that they have it and wants them not to have it. Envy resents the good.
The sin of Lucifer was this sin of envy. “By the envy of the devil, death entered the world,” the book of Wisdom tells us (Wis 2:24). Rather than rejoicing in the gifts he had been given as a great angel, rather than rejoicing in the goodness of God, Lucifer was envious and sought to diminish that goodness. Some traditions tell us that after the creation of the angels, Lucifer saw that God would eventually choose to dwell within a woman. He recoiled against the idea of the Incarnation and was filled with envy of Our Lady. As God’s great angel, he felt God should dwell inside of him instead. Lucifer rebelled against God and began his quest against this woman.
We see envy play a role in many of the tragedies of Scripture, from Cain murdering his brother, to Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery, to Caiaphas and the Jewish leaders handing Jesus over to be crucified.
If we understand that we were created in love for love, and love is the willing of the good of others, we can see that envy is actually the exact opposite of the purpose for which we were created. All sin is acting against our nature, but perhaps most especially this sin of envy. Perhaps that is why the sin of envy, unlike some of the other sins, always feels a bit icky.
How do we act out of envy? Perhaps it is through gossip, when we share other’s faults or sins with others. The Catechism reminds us that even spreading what is true about someone can still a sin! “He becomes guilty: of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor; of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them” (CCC 2477) Maybe it is working to try to prevent someone from succeeding or thwarting their success in some way. Perhaps it is in brooding or becoming distracted in our own work or prayer because of our feelings of envy.
We have all been created in the image and likeness of God. We have all been given particular gifts. God gives us the perfect amount of gifts, talents, and blessings that he knows we can do something with in our lives. We are given exactly what we can handle. God doesn’t give us gifts we can’t use or talents we can’t handle. He knows what we need, he knows what we can use… and he expects us to do something with those gifts. So stop grasping at others’ gifts, and start working with what you have.
Examine
- Have I been bitter or resentful towards God about what I don’t have?
- Have I been envious of the abilities, ideas, attributes, possessions, money, friends, or family of others?
- Have I judged others in my thoughts?
- Have I damaged the reputation of another person by gossip?
- Have I repeated accusations that might not be true? Have I exaggerated?
- Have I resented the promotion or recognition given to others?
Eradicate
Seven weeks ago, we began looking at the sin of pride and fighting that pride with gratitude. Let us end where we began. Today, practice the art of gratitude.
- Thank God for the gifts he has given you.
- Thank God for the gifts he has given others, even those people you struggle with! Go out of your way to praise others.
- Take time to meditate on the great gift of salvation. Meditate on the gift of the Incarnation, that the Son of God became one of us, to redeem us, out of love.
Let us fight against envy and the other deadly sins by following the advice of St. Paul and look to the imitate our Redeemer:
“Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped” (Phil 2:5-6).
Image credit: Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash
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