Last week we talked about wrath, which is unjust anger. Wrath causes us to sin in many other ways and hurt those around us. It also slowly destroys our relationship with God. One thing that I did not mention last week is the advice that is occasionally given out about dealing with anger, and that advice is to release all of the anger in a moment of cathartic rage. Well, this is terrible advice, because the more we give in to wrath, the more of a vice it becomes. The better way to handle it is to express our anger in a reasonable way that does not give in to the sin of wrath. If we practice good habits, our emotions soon follow and we will struggle less with anger.

Now we move on the Deadly Sin of Envy. This one hits close to home. Have you all heard the word ?schadenfreude?? It is the secret delight at the sufferings or failures of another. I struggle with this. Have you ever heard that something went wrong for a friend and you had told them not to do it and they did it anyway and it went horribly? That is schadenfreude. Or, someone got a job or responsibility they didn?t deserve and you knew they didn?t deserve it but you did and they failed it? That is schadenfreude.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that envy is ?sorrow over another man?s good.? It is the desire to compete with others for reputation and objects of desire. We want what they have. Here is the problem with envy, we can be green with jealousy, stop appreciating everything that we have, and get all worked up about what we want but do not have, and all it will do is ruin our own happiness and destroy that relationship with the person of whom we are envious. It won?t harm the other person at all!

In the scriptures it says that envy kills (Job 5:2), meaning that it is a mortal sin that kills us inside. Envy is very high up on Dante?s list of mortal sins because it directly contradicts Charity. Charity is the virtue that only wants the best for the other, it is the love that God has for us and the love we ought to have for others. Charity says it doesn?t matter if my friend deserved that new car or the promotion I am happy they got it. Charity rejoices with others and is happy with them. Envy destroys charity and thus destroys the life of God in us. We see this very clearly if we re-read the words of the serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He says to her ?God told you not to eat this fruit of the knowledge of good and evil because he doesn?t want you to be like him.? In other words, be envious, Eve, be jealous that you are not like God, that you don?t have his knowledge and power. The poet John Milton in Paradise Lost actually says that Satan tricked us in this way because he himself is envious that God loves us so much. Envy is one of the primary motivations that keeps Satan after us and he would like nothing more than to see us give into it also.

Envy also creates a whole set of temptations towards other sins, the 10 commandments list a few: Do not covet your neighbors house, or donkey, or servants, or wife. There is temptation here towards theft, adultery, hatred, pride, gossip, and joy at the misfortune of others. When I notice that I have given into envy, and I reflect upon the thoughts I have had and the way it made me treat others, I do not like the person I have become.

We might even say that this is a sin against the Holy Spirit himself! It is he who gives us everything we have, and who are we to judge that God has not given us enough or has given another too much. How to fight envy? Remind yourself of the generosity of God; the way he loves us whole heartedly, the way the 3 persons of the Trinity love each other completely, the way he loves even his enemies. Let us come to the Eucharist in which our Lord shares with us all that he is, knowing that we do not deserve such mercy, and take the virtue of charity away with us today so that we might practice loving others more than they deserve. In such a way we become like Christ.