Jealousy and Envy (Chapters 1 - 5)

JEALOUSY AND ENVY

 St. Cyprian of Carthage

Chapter 1

To be jealous of the good that you see and to be envious of those better than one's self seems in the eyes of some to be a slight and moderate wrong, most beloved brothers, and, when it is thought to be light and moderate, it is not feared; when it is not feared, it is contemned; when it is contemned, it is not easily avoided; and it becomes a dark and hidden source of destruction, which, when it is not perceived so that it can be avoided by the provident, secretly afflicts improvident minds. But furthermore, the Lord has ordered us to be prudent, and He bade us to be watchful with cautious solicitude, lest the adversary himself ever watchful and always lying in wait, when he has crept into the heart, blow up flames from sparks, make very great things from small ones, and, when he soothes the relaxed and the incautious with a milder air and a softer breeze, after stirring up storms and whirlwinds, contrive the ruin of faith and the shipwreck of salvation and life. So, most beloved brethren, we must be on our guard, and strive with all our strength, so that we may with watchful and full diligence repulse the enemy who rages and directs his shafts against every part of the body where we can be struck or  wounded, as Peter the Apostle in his Epistle forewarns and teaches, saying: 'Be sober, be watchful! For your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking something to devour.'

Chapter 2

He encircles us individually and, like an enemy besieging those enclosed explores the walls, tries whether any part of the members is less stable and less trustworthy, by whose approach penetration to the interior may be effected. He offers to the eyes seductive forms and easy pleasures, so that by sight he may destroy chastity. He tempts the ears with melodious  music, that by the hearing of sweet sounds he may relax and enervate Christian vigor. He provokes the tongue by abuse; he instigates the hand by irritating injuries to the viciousness of murder. To make the defrauder, he presents unjust gains; to capture the soul with money, he brings in harmful gains; he promises earthly honors, to destroy heavenly ones; he displays the false, to take away the true; and when he cannot deceive secretly, he threatens boldly and openly, holding out the terror of a turbulent persecution, always restless to conquer the servants of God, and always hostile, crafty in peace, violent in persecution.

Chapter 3

Therefore, most beloved brethren, the mind stands ready and armed against all the deceitful plots or the open threats of the devil, always as prepared to repulse, as the enemy is always prepared to attack. And since his missiles which steal upon us secretly are more frequent and his casting of them more concealed and clandestine, and to the extent that this is not perceived, this attack is the more effectual and more frequent to our injury, let us also be alert to understand and repel these. Among these is the devil of jealousy and envy. If anyone should look deeply into this, he will discover that nothing should be avoided more by a Christian,nothing provided for more cautiously than that one be not caught by envy and malice, that one, being entangled in the blind snares of a deceitful enemy, when brother by envy turns to hatred of brother, not himself unwittingly perish by his own sword. That we may be able to gather this more fully and perceive it more clearly, let us recur to its source and origin. Let us see from what jealousy begins, both when and how. For more easily will so pernicious an evil be avoided, if both the origin and magnitude of the same is known.

Chapter 4

For this reason the devil at the very beginnings of the world was both the first to perish and to ruin (others). He supported by his angelic majesty, acceptable and dear to God, after he had seen man made to the image of God, with malevolent envy plunged into jealousy, not casting down another by the instinct of jealousy before he himself was cast down by jealousy, a captive before capturing, ruined before ruining; when at the instigation of envy he deprived man of the grace of immortality which had been given him, he himself lost that which he had been before. Of such a nature is the evil, most beloved brethren, by which an angel fell, by which that high and glorious sublimity could have been circumvented, and overturned, by which he who deceived was deceived. Therefore, envy rages on earth, when he who is about to perish from jealousy obeys the master of perdition, when he who becomes jealous imitates the devil, just as it is written: 'But by the envy of the devil, death came into world.' So they who are on his side imitate him.

Chapter 5

Hence finally begin the first hatreds of the new brotherhood; hence the abominable parricides, when the unjust Cain is jealous of the just Abel, when the evil persecutes the good out of jealousy and envy. So strong was the fury of emulation for the consummation of the crime, that neither love of brother nor the enormity of the crime nor fear of God nor the punishment of the sin was considered. He was unjustly oppressed who had been the first to show justice; he endured hatred who did not know how to hate; he was slain impiously who while dying did not fight back. Jealousy was the cause of Esau having been hostile to his brother Jacob, for because Jacob had received the blessing of his father, Esau burned with the firebrands of envy into a persecuting hatred. As for Joseph's having been sold by his brothers, the cause for the selling came from jealousy. After he set forth simply, as brother to brothers, the prosperity which had been shown him in visions, their malevolent minds erupted into envy. What other than the stimulus of jealousy provoked Saul the king also to hate David, to desire to kill that innocent, merciful man, patient with a gentle mildness, by often repeated persecutions? Because, when Goliath had been killed and so great an enemy had been slain by divine assistance and condescension, the admiring people burst forth into approbation unto praise of David, Saul through envy conceived the furies of hatred and persecution. Not to make my account long by naming individuals, let us consider the destruction of a people that perished once and for all. Did not the Jews perish on this account, since they preferred to envy rather than to believe in Christ? Disparaging the great things that He did, they were deceived by a blinding jealousy and they were unable to open the eyes of their hearts so as to recognize His divine works.