St. Gregory the Great once said, “from envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbour, and displeasure caused by his prosperity.”
The Catholic Church considers envy a capital sin. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “it refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbour it is a mortal sin: St. Augustine saw envy as ‘the diabolical sin.’”
St. Bernard of Clairvaux said it is natural for human beings to desire things that are better than what they already have, but “no matter how many such things they have, they are always lusting after what they have not; never at peace, they sigh for new possessions. Discontented, they spend themselves in fruitless toil, and find only weariness in the evanescent and unreal pleasures of the world. In their greediness, they count all that they have clutched as nothing in comparison with what is beyond their grasp, and lose all pleasure in their actual possessions by longing after what they have not, yet covet. No one can ever hope to own all things. Even the little that one does possess is got only with toil and is held in fear; since all are certain to lose what they have when God’s day, appointed though unrevealed, shall come.”
Father Joseph Esper described envy this way: “in our sinful state, we often want something not because we actually need it ourselves, but because we see someone else possessing it.”
Commenting on St. Bernard, Father Esper said the part of human nature that sets a higher value on things we don’t have “can eventually bring us to God, once we’ve realized that all this world’s pleasures have not satisfied our deepest needs.”
To do this, “ask yourself honestly if you’ve received true and lasting satisfaction whenever you’ve finally obtained what you desired or envied. If not, this should, as St. Bernard says, convince you of the need to seek God above all else. Once you allow yourself to be consumed by this desire, you will begin making great spiritual progress.”
Otherwise, envy can have evil effects. Father Tanqueray described a few:
a) “Envy stirs within us sentiments of hatred: we run the risk of conceiving a hatred for those whom we envy or of whom we feel jealous and, as a result, of speaking ill of them, of blackening their character, of calumniating them, of wishing them evil.
b) It tends to sow discord, not only between strangers, but between related families, and even among members of the same family. We need only to recall the history of Joseph and his brothers. These dissensions may go very far towards creating enmities and scandals. At times envy divides the Catholics of a given region to the great detriment of the Church.
c) It urges men on to the immoderate quest for riches and for honours: in order to surpass those whom we envy, we indulge in overtaxing work, take steps of a more or less questionable nature, by which we sin against loyalty and even against justice.
d) It disturbs our peace of soul: we know no peace nor tranquility as long as we do not succeed in eclipsing, in subjugating our rivals, and since this happens but seldom, we live in perpetual anguish.”
Good will and humility are remedies for envy. The Catechism states: “Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity; the baptized person should struggle against it by exercising good will. Envy often comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to live in humility.”
As St. John Chrysostom wrote, “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.”
Another remedy Father Tanqueray proposed is to cultivate the “noble and Christian sentiment of emulation, which prompts us to imitate and even surpass the virtues of our neighbour, with the help of God’s grace.”
He added, “It is to enter into the spirit of the Church, which, in proposing to us the saints for our imitation, provokes us to a high and hallowed emulation. Thus, what would have been envy proves to be an occasion for the cultivation of virtue.”
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以仿效戰勝嫉妒
根據天主教教理：「嫉妒是七罪宗之一。嫉妒眼見他人的財物而感到不快，也是想將之據為己有的過分慾望，即使非法也不惜。當嫉妒是希望人遭遇重大災害，就是大罪：聖奧思定視嫉妒為『特別屬於魔鬼的罪』。『從嫉妒生怨恨、誹謗、誣衊、幸災樂禍，對他人的發達不快。』（聖額我略一世）」
Joseph Esper 神父寫道：「在我們有罪的狀態下，我們常常想要某樣東西，不是因為我們真的需要它，而是因為看到別人擁有它。」聖伯爾納鐸解釋說：「人類自然會渴望他們認為比自己已擁有的更好的東西，並且沒有任何缺乏他們所希望的特殊品質的事物令他們滿意…無論他們擁有多少這樣的東西，他們總是渴望那些他們沒有的東西；他們從不滿足，總是渴望新的財產。不滿的他們在徒勞的苦惱中耗盡自己，在世俗短暫和虛幻的快樂中只找到疲憊。在他們的貪婪中，他們認為自己所擁有的一切與他們無法掌握的東西相比都不算什麼，並因渴望未擁有的東西而失去了對現有財產的所有快樂。沒有人能指望擁有一切。即使是那些僅僅擁有的，也只能通過辛勤勞作獲得，並在恐懼中持有它們；因為所有人都確信，當天主預定但未揭示的日子到來時，他們將失去所擁有的一切。」
Joseph Esper 神父評論道：「根據聖伯爾納鐸的說法，我們的人性使我們對自己沒有的東西賦予更高的價值，而不重視我們已經擁有的 — 最終可以將我們帶到天主面前的東西，並意識到這個世界的所有快樂都無法滿足我們最深層的需求。因此，誠實地問自己，每當你最終獲得你所渴望或嫉妒的東西時，你是否得到了真正和持久的滿足。如果沒有，這應該像聖伯爾納鐸所說的那樣，使你確信需要以上主為最高目標。一旦你讓自己被這個願望所吞噬，你將開始取得巨大的靈性進步。」
Tanqueray 神父描述了嫉妒的邪惡影響。他寫道：「嫉妒的影響有時非常可惡：a) 嫉妒在我們心中激起仇恨的情感：我們有可能對那些我們嫉妒或妒忌的人產生仇恨，因此說他們的壞話、抹黑他們的品格、誹謗他們，甚至希望他們遭遇不幸。b) 嫉妒往往會播下不和的種子，不僅在陌生人之間，還在有親屬關係的家庭之間，甚至在同一個家庭成員之間。我們只需回想一下若瑟和他兄弟們的故事。這些不和可能會發展到創造仇恨和醜聞的地步。有時嫉妒會分裂一個地區的天主教徒，對教會造成極大的損害。c) 嫉妒促使人們過度追求財富和榮譽：為了超越我們嫉妒的人，我們從事過度勞累的工作，採取更多或更少有問題的措施，從而犯下不忠甚至不公的罪過。d) 嫉妒擾亂我們心靈的平靜：只要我們未能壓倒或征服我們的對手，我們就不會知道什麼是平靜和安寧。由於這種情況很少發生，我們生活在永久的痛苦中。」
良善和謙遜是治療嫉妒的良藥。天主教教理指出：「嫉妒是不快的一種表現，因此是對愛德的拒絕；受過洗的人應以慈善加以抗衡。嫉妒往往來自驕傲，受過洗的人應練習度謙遜的生活：『你願意看到天主因你受光榮嗎? 好，那你就該為弟兄的進步而高興，天主就因你而立刻受光榮。天主受讚頌，因為祂的僕人已知道克服嫉妒，視他人的功績為自己的喜樂。』（聖若望金口）」
另一個由Tanqueray神父提出的治療方法是培養「高尚和基督徒的效法精神，這促使我們在天主恩典的幫助下模仿甚至超越我們鄰居的美德。」他補充道：「這是進入教會的精神，教會向我們提出聖人作為我們效法的榜樣，激發我們高尚而神聖的效法。這樣，原本可能是嫉妒的情況，反而成為培養美德的契機。」
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