Jealousy and Envy (Chapters 6 - 13)

St. Cyprian of Carthage

Chapter 6

Now considering these matters, most beloved brethren, let us vigilantly and courageously fortify our hearts, which have been dedicated to God, against so great an evil destructiveness. Let the death of others be of advantage for our salvation; let the punishment of the imprudent confer health upon the cautious. There is, however, no ground for anyone thinking that such an evil as that is contained under one form or is confined to brief limits and within a narrow territory. The manifold and fruitful destruction of jealousy is widely spread. It is the root of all evils, the source of disasters, the nursery of sins, the substance of transgressions. From it hatred arises; animosity precedes from it. Jealousy inflames avarice, when one cannot be content with its own on seeing another richer. Jealousy incites ambition when one sees another more exalted in honors. When jealousy blinds our senses and reduces the secrets of the mind to its sway, fear of God is scorned, the teaching of Christ is neglected, the day of judgment is not provided for. Pride inflates; cruelty embitters; faithlessness prevaricates; impatience agitates; discord infuriates; anger grows hot; nor can he who has become a subject of an alien power restrain or rule himself. Hence the bond of the Lord's peace is broken; hence fraternal charity is violated; hence truth is adulterated, unity is broken, there is a plunging into heresies and schisms, when priests are disparaged, when bishops are envied, when one complains that he himself rather has not been ordained or disdains to tolerate another who has been placed over him. Hence the proud man is recalcitrant and rebellious out of jealousy, perverse out of envy, out of animosity and jealousy an enemy not of the man but of the honor.

Chapter 7

Of such a sort, indeed, is the gnawing worm of the soul. What a plague of one's thoughts, how great a rust of the heart to be jealous either of the virtue or of the happiness of another, that is, to hate in him either his own merits or divine blessings, to turn the good things of another to one's own evil, to be tormented by the prosperity of illustrious men, to make the glory of others one's own punishment, to apply, as it were, hangmen to one's own heart, to bring tortures to one's own thoughts and feelings to lacerate us with intestinal tortures, to beat the secret places of the heart with the claws of malevolence! No food can be delightful to such men, no drink pleasing. There is always sighing and groaning and suffering, and, since jealousy is never set forth by the envious, day and night the heart is besieged and torn with intermission. Other evils have a terminus, and whatever sin is committed is brought to an end by its consummation. In the adulterer the crime ceased when the act of lust has been perpetrated, in the killer the crime rests when the homicide has been committed; and the possession of the booty brings the rapacity of the thief to an end; and the completion of the deception places moderation on the deceiver. Jealousy has no terminus; it is a continually abiding evil and a sin without end, and as he who is envied proceeds with greater success, to this extent does the envious one burn to a greater heat with the fires of envy.

Chapter 8

Hence the threatening look, the savage appearance, pallor in the face, trembling of the lips, gnashing of teeth, mad words, unbridled insults, a hand prompt for the violence of murder, and even if the hand is for the time without a sword, yet it is armed with the hatred of an infuriated mind. And thus the Holy Spirit says in the psalms: 'Be not jealous of him who walks well in his way.' And again: 'The wicked man plots against the just man and gnashes his teeth against him. But God will laugh at him, for He sees that his day will come.' The blessed Apostle Paul designates and notes these when he says: 'The venom of asps is under their lips: and
their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; contrition and calamity are in their ways, for they have not known the way of peace, nor is the fear of God before their eyes.

Chapter 9

The evil is much lighter and the danger less, when the limbs are wounded by a sword. The cure is easy where the wound is manifest, and when a remedy comes to its assistance what is seen is quickly brought to health. The wounds of jealousy are concealed and hidden, nor do they admit the remedy of a healing cure, which have concealed themselves with blind pain within the lurking places of the conscience. Whoever of you are envious and malignant, you are seen as you are, crafty, pernicious, and hostile to those whom you hate. You are the enemy of no one's well-being more than of your own. Whoever he is whom you persecute with jealousy, will be able to escape and avoid you. You cannot escape yourself. Wherever you are, your adversary is with you; the enemy is always in your heart; destruction is shut up within; you are tied and bound with an inescapable chain of links; you are captive with jealousy as your master; and no solaces come to your relief. It is a persevering evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God; it is a calamity without a remedy to hate one who is happy.

Chapter 10

And therefore, most beloved brethren; the Lord, having regard for this danger, lest anyone out of jealousy of his brother fall into the snare of death, when the disciples asked him who among them was the greatest, said: 'He who will be the least among all you, this one shall be the greatest.' He cut off all jealousy by His reply; He eradicated and tore away every cause and basis for envy. It is not permitted him to be envious. There can be no contention among us for exaltation. From humility we grow to the highest accomplishments; we have learned how we may be pleasing. Finally also the Apostle Paul, when instructing and advising how we who, being illuminated by the light of Christ, have evaded the darkness of the conversation of night, may walk in the deeds and in the works of light,writes and says: 'The night is far advanced; but the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.' If the shades have receded from your heart, if the night is scattered from it, 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, carry on the things that are of Christ, because Christ is the Light and the Day.

Chapter 11

Why do you rush into the darkness of jealousy? Why do you involve yourself in a cloud of envy? Why do you extinguish all the light of peace and love by the blindness of ill-will? Why do you return to the devil, whom you had renounced? Why have you become like Cain? For that he is bound by the crime of homicide, whoever has become envious of his brother and holds him in hatred, the Apostle John declares in his letter, saying: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has life abiding in him.' And again: 'He who says that he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now, and walks in the darkness and does not know whither he goes because the darkness has blinded his eyes.' He who hates his brother walks in the darkness and does not know where he goes, he says. For he unwittingly goes to Gehenna; ignorant and blind he plunges himself into punishment; withdrawing, that is, from the light of Christ who warns and says: 'I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.' But he follows Christ who abides by His precepts, who walks in the way of His teaching, who follows in His footsteps and ways, who imitates what Christ both taught and did, according as Peter also urges and advises, saying: 'Christ has suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you may follow in His steps.'

Chapter 12

We ought to remember by what name Christ calls His people, by what title He names His flock. He calls them sheep, that Christian innocence may be equated with sheep; He calls them lambs, so that their simplicity of mind may imitate the simple nature of lambs. Why does the wolf lie hidden under sheeps' clothing; why does he who falsely calls himself a Christian dishonor the flock of Christ? What else is the putting on of the name of Christ and not going over the way of Christ than a prevarication of the divine name, than the abandonment of the way of salvation? Since He himself teaches and says that he comes unto life who has kept the
commandments, and he is wise who has heard and done His words, that He also is called the greatest teacher in the kingdom of heaven who has so taught and done, then that will profit the preacher which has been well and usefully preached, if that which is uttered from the mouth is fulfilled by the deeds that follow. But what did the Lord urge more upon His disciples, what among His salutary counsels and heavenly precepts should be guarded and kept more than that with the same love with which He himself loved the disciples, we should also love each other? How, moreover, does he keep either the peace or the love of the Lord, who, because of the intervention of jealousy, can neither be peaceful nor loving?

Chapter 13

So also the Apostle Paul, when he was bringing out merits of peace and love, and when he was strongly asserting that neither almsgivings nor also the passion itself of a confessor and martyr would avail him, unless he had kept the requirements whole and inviolate, added, and said: 'Charity is magnanimous, charity is kind, charity is not jealous,' that is, teaching and showing that he can maintain charity, whoever is magnanimous and kind and free from jealousy and envy. Likewise in another place, when he was advising that a man who has already become full of the Holy Spirit, and a son of God by heavenly birth, should follow nothing but spiritual and divine things, he lays it down and says: 'And I indeed, brethren, could not have spoken to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal, as to little ones in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with solid food. For you were not yet ready for it. Nor are you now ready for it, for you are still carnal. For since there are jealousy and strife and dissensions among you, are you not carnal, and are you not walking according to man?'