Do you struggle with envy of others? Take the counsel of the saints and discover the greatest remedies for envy!
To these rewards that you also may come who had been possessed with jealousy and rancour, cast away all that malice wherewith you were before held fast, and be reformed to the way of eternal life in the footsteps of salvation. Tear out from your breast thorns and thistles, that the Lord’s seed may enrich you with a fertile produce, that the divine and spiritual cornfield may abound to the plentifulness of a fruitful harvest. Cast out the poison of gall, cast out the virus of discords. Let the mind which the malice of the serpent had infected be purged; let all bitterness which had settled within be softened by the sweetness of Christ.
–St. Augustine of Hippo
Would you like to see God glorified by you? Then rejoice in your brother’s progress and you will immediately give glory to God. Because his servant could conquer envy by rejoicing in the merits of others, God will be praised.
–St. John Chrysostom
Charity is never without those things which are hers; that is, those which are necessary for salvation; and these she not only possesses, but possesses them in abundance. In these she desires to abound for herself, that she may abound for all others also; she desires to have sufficient for herself, that she may abound for all others also; she desires to have sufficient for herself, that she may be wanting in nothing for any others. In other words, she is imperfect if she is not full.
–St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Its remedy is to devote one’s self to the exercise of fraternal charity. . . . For the envious man inflicts himself and consumes himself inwardly, and God often raises up a thing to be envied in such a way that the envious man who desired the thing is downcast and humbled. We see that the devil repulsed the first man from earthly Paradise by envy, but in the time that God sent Christ into the world, he gave back earthly Paradise due to His merits. The brothers of Joseph the Patriarch sold him through envy, but on that occasion, God saw to it that ultimately he would evade them. King Saul persecuted David from envy, and God took the kingdom from Saul and bestowed it upon David.
–St. Robert Bellarmine
Be contented with your state, do not envy others, who are placed higher than you are; remember that earthly greatness and grandeur are vain and transitory. For what brings man respect and dignity? Virtue, according to the words of Holy Scripture: “Oh, how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! For the memory thereof is immortal; because it is known both with God and with men” (Wis. iv. 1). Sin on the other hand causes disgrace and shame. Therefore this prayer is recommended to all, but especially to Christian young women: “Preserve us from sin and shame.” What gives man real greatness? A self-sacrificing love for God and our neighbor. For this reason we honor a St. Martin, a St. Vincent de Paul, and so many others.
–St. John Vianney
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This article is taken from a chapter in Manual for Conquering Deadly Sin by Fr. Kolinski which is available from TAN Books.
