ENVY—THE VENOM OF ASPS
The
first
of all sins may be said to have been committed in
heaven itself. It was that of the rebellious
angels. Interpreting the various references that
are made in Holy Scripture to this sin, theological writers hold that Lucifer, the light-bearer, the brightest
and highest of the angelic hosts, was enraged
because it was revealed to him that God the Second
Person of the Blessed Trinity was to ennoble a
nature inferior to that of the angels by becoming
man. Stirred up by envy, he dared to raise himself against the will of God. How shall we
depict what ensued? How shall we in human words convey ideas of heaven?
Michael and the heavenly hosts who remained faithful rose up with the cry, “Who is like to God,”
and thrust these infatuated creatures from the light
of Divine Love into the eternal
gloom of hell. Thenceforth Lucifer was Satan, and
his angel followers, devils. Thenceforward their heaven-born
faculties were devoted to evil, to frustrating the designs
of God and injuring His creatures in the human nature He was to adopt. The
envy that begot the first sin propagated
itself and continues to reproduce, through envy, temptation and sins of all kinds.
This envy, this sorrow
at another's good, has had a fearful history, which should warn all to beware of receiving its poison into their system.
Satan's first act of temptation was performed in the guise of a serpent, and after the manner of a serpent he has been spreading the
venom of his envy ever since; and he finds the poison one of his most effective means for
accomplishing his dire intentions. To Adam and Eve he suggested envy of God's perfections. “You shall become as gods, knowing good and
evil” (Gen. 3:5). Cain was angry because his brother was better than he;
and consequently Abel's gifts were more acceptable to God (Gen. 4:7), and so
came about the first
murder. Esau's hostility to Jacob arose from envy; Joseph was sold by his
brethren; Core, Dathan and Abiron raised sedition against Moses; Saul sought to
kill David—and all through envy; nay —did not Pilate himself perceive, when
Christ was brought before him by the priests, “that for envy
they had delivered Him” (Matt. 27: 18).
Thus,
through all the history of
mankind the virus
of the old serpent has been
constantly reinfused into human veins, and it has wrought an incalculable
amount of harm. Other passions
seem to prompt to individual acts of sin,
but this appears as if it were almost an infection, transmitted continuously in
the race. It is
closely allied both with pride and anger, and together with
them may be said to be the parent
of many sins. Saint Thomas
Aquinas enumerates the following “daughters of
envy:” hatred, murmuring, detraction, rejoicing at
another's harm, grieving at another’s good; and St. Paul, as St. Cyprian holds,
was referring to the envious when he said, “The venom of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet swift to shed blood: Destruction
and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace they have not known”
(Rom. 3 : 13-18).
St. Cyprian further
mentions the following as the fruits
of envy; hatred, animosity, avarice, ambition, pride,
cruelty, faithlessness, discord, anger, heresy and schism. Truly a numerous
brood, even for a reptile; a horrible progeny, even from the
old serpent himself. To trace the connection
of each with its parent might be a task somewhat
too lengthy, but the fearful array even of their names is sufficient
to warn us to take all care lest we fall into this vice. The
envious man is sometimes, though not
necessarily, proud. He may have a high esteem of his
own perfections and is therefore more easily
blinded to another's worth. An envy of perhaps a
more violent form is that of
the man who knows himself to be of little
worth, yet resents the worthiness of others, as if it were an injury
to him.
In
either case, the victim of
the vice is most
miserable. In most vices, there is more
or less of the allurement of
pleasure, but here the sinner
preys upon himself and makes himself the more
unhappy because of the happiness of
others; more guilty because of
another's virtue. He is not
unlike the reptile who being
unable to revenge himself upon his enemy, stings himself to death. Child of
Satan as this vice is, one
would think that no other would adopt it. Who but the
great enemy of God
and man could be grieved because of another's
virtue? who but his children? Who but a child of
the great enemy could be moved to anger by the
holiness of Christ,
the purity of
the Virgin Mother, the
sanctity of the saints?
Yet, have we not known them to be hated? Why else were the
saints persecuted? Why else was Jesus crucified?
As antidotes against the power of the vice,
cultivate meekness. Recall the ineffable sweetness of temper
of our Lord, Who “offered His cheek to the smiter,” and
who bade us “turn the
other cheek to him who strikes us;” Who was “dumb as a lamb before his shearer,” and Who laid down His life for
His persecutors. Practise humility, for since a high estimation of our own worth is a ready
temptation to unhappiness in the worth or honor in
another, it follows that a mean opinion or rather correct valuation of ourselves, and an indifference to the esteem of others, will be
an excellent preservative against the danger of envy. Our Lord Himself, though His greatness was
infinite, sought not His own honor, and was readily content to be, from
Bethlehem to Calvary, the despised and rejected of men.
To us He prescribes— “Go, sit down in the lowest
place. He that is lesser among you all is the greater” (Luke 9: 14). Christ is our model and our preceptor, and only in following Him
can we hope to escape this, the wiliest, the most insidious of the deceits
of the tempter. Practise above all things, charity. St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, speaks of charity
as the very reverse of all
those things which St. Cyprian names as the companions
of envy. “Charity
is patient, is kind;
charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not
puffed up; is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not
in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; charity
never falleth away, whether prophecies be made void, or tongues shall cease, or
knowledge shall be destroyed.” (1 Cor. 13: 4, s, 6, 8.)
Many-limbed for evil as
envy is, charity has as many arms strong in virtue;
it is therefore the most
effectual opponent to aid us in crushing the asp. The love of God and His
perfections; the love of holiness
and all who practise it; the love of our enemies, peremptorily demanded of all who claim the name of Christian,—these leave no space through which the serpent may enter, leave no room for envy. Shall we
who follow Christ give place to His enemy? His love is the
antidote for the poison.
“Envy not the glory
and riches of a sinner” (Eccl. 9: 16). “Envy not the unjust
man, and do not follow his ways” (Prov. 3: 31). Envy not another either the gifts he has received from God,—bodily strength or
beauty, riches or family or friends; nor the gifts of soul; intelligence of will,
grace or sanctity; for they that do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:
26.) The angels of God
rejoice over one sinner doing penance. Do you then rejoice with them over
another's good, weep for his evil. “Rejoice
with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep” (Rom. 12: 15).
~~The American Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. 30(3), 1904.
