The Life of Humility and Meekness Envy…!
The Life of Humility and Meekness
Envy…!¹
Envy is to be jealous of one who is more glorified than you, and to speak about him with evils. Because you are jealous of his honor and want to diminish his dignity. The evil eye is the conscience that looks with wickedness at the goodness of others. “One of the disciples of St. Isaac.”
How is the proud heart fed? If a person is proud, he must be envious, and it cannot be otherwise. Pride is the mother of envy; it can only give birth to it and always lives with it. Therefore, every proud person is envious.
And if he is envious, he feeds on the calamities of others. Therefore the Apostle says: “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another” (Gal 5:15). St. Augustine (Ps. 101).
Abba Macarius the Great said: “Rejoice in the perfection of your brethren, humble yourselves before them, and resemble them. And grieve for them if there is any deficiency in them.”
And Abba Isaiah said: The righteous loves that all people be righteous. But he who has the pain of envy in his heart sees no one as pure; rather, according to his own pains he thinks in his heart concerning everyone. And if he hears praise of someone, he envies him. The Paradise of the Fathers.
Love of honor is the fountain of envy. Whoever finds envy finds with it the devil who fell by it from ancient times. He who believes that from a small spark a fire is kindled, let him beware lest he gather in his heart the fire of envy, lest it burn all that is in him, and its smoke blind the eyes of many. St. Isaac.
He who wishes to calm the savagery of the envious and deliver them by the purity of divine love, let him keep his conscience in childlike peace, and meet them first with praise and gifts, and encounter them with veneration and honor in humility, and shame their faces by setting the table as the divine Scriptures command. St. Isaac.
Some sins are born from other sins, such as envy, contention, and rivalry; for they are born from the love of human glory. For he who loves human glory, when he sees them glorifying another more than himself, he envies him and resists him. If a person sees that he has struggled against envy and it has not ceased, let him know that its root remains firm. If he cuts the root by humility, the branches will no longer sprout. St. Basil the Great.
A person who is distressed because of a fault done against him can be calmed by humble appeasement. But what can be done for a person who is offended more when he sees you more humble or more merciful, and is stirred by the success and happiness of others?! It is clear, then, that envy is worse than all faults and harder to eradicate, because it is more inflamed by the remedies by which others are healed. Who is willing to lose his progress in order to please his envier?! Therefore we must continually implore the divine help, to which nothing is impossible, lest this serpent destroy all that is flourishing in us. Abba Piamoun.
Do not envy the success of your brethren, for the Apostle says: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” He who envies his brother for his success separates himself from eternal life.
He who has no jealousy and no envy is never grieved by the success of others. If another is honored, he is not disturbed; and if another is exalted, he is not saddened. For he considers all to be ahead of him, and he offers the honor of all above himself, and considers himself the last of all and unworthy of anything. He who has no envy assists the successful and rests with those who walk well. If he sees a brother growing in virtue, he does not hinder him; and if he sees a brother in faults, he does not condemn him.
But he who is wounded by envy and jealousy is miserable, for he is a partner of the devil by whom death entered the world. He is an adversary to all. He prefers no one over himself. He belittles the noble and attributes defects to those who walk well: he calls the fasting one conceited, and the diligent in chanting he calls a lover of displaying his voice. St. Ephrem the Syrian.
He who rejoices in the good deeds of every person, all good things will overflow upon him from the Lord. And he who grieves over the good deeds of others will not lack evils, and quickly his downfall will come. The envious does not see the light, because by his envy he blames the enlightened. And he is always murmuring. The spiritual elder.
Envy and hypocrisy appear to me as diseases more wicked than anger, for hidden evil is more dangerous than manifest evil. Envy is secretly nourished in the depths of the heart like a concealed fire, while outwardly everything appears in deceit. It is inwardly—until a time—without flame, and it burns only those near it.
A person may hide this disease out of shame, yet he cannot hide it always. But like a sharp smoke, the bitterness that springs from envy appears in truthful glances and an expressive countenance. And if misfortune befalls the envied one, then the envier reveals his disease by making the man’s sorrow the subject of his joy and delight. St. Gregory of Nyssa.
And what is the cause of this disease? That a brother or friend or neighbor lives in happiness!! What has happened to you, O wretched creature—thus I like to say to you—why are you in a fit, staring with an evil eye at the good that has happened to your neighbor?! You rub your palms in anger, clench your fist, your mind is troubled, and you groan with pain in your depths! You find no joy in the pleasures set before you! Your food has no taste, your house is gloomy, and your ears are ready to hear a fault attached to the man. But if something good is said about him, then to such words you block your ears! St. Gregory of Nyssa.
The envious never rejoices in the success of his companion. If he sees a brother at rest, he slanders him. His heart is at all times full of anxiety; the color of his face fades and his strength fails. He is bitter toward all and an enemy to everyone. He plays the hypocrite toward all and changes toward all. Envy and jealousy are an evil poison, for from them are born hatred, slander, and murder.
Why does the honoring of the excellent weigh heavily on you, O man? If this one or that falls from salvation, are you saved? Or if the Kingdom of Heaven is closed individually, do you alone reign? Or is the Kingdom of Heaven sufficient for you alone, or is the bliss of Paradise prepared for you alone?!
The satanic intention is that which grieves over the success of people, for the demons who hate them are keen on the destruction of all together. But the saints, who are conformed to their Master, desire that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For when they were crowned with love, they loved their neighbor as themselves. “St. Ephrem the Syrian.”
He who envies is able not to envy if he does not place greatness in anything except the love of God.
Therefore, do not envy, lest you be tormented by envy. For the pledge of hell is your envy. If it torments you here to this extent, how great will be the measure of its torment there? “St. John of Asyut.”
¹ An article by His Grace Anba Shenouda, Bishop of Education – Al-Keraza Magazine, second year – issues one and two – January and February 1966.
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