The Kindly Disposed and the Envious

Admonition 11. The kindly disposed are to be admonished in one way, and the envious in another. The kindly disposed are to be admonished to rejoice in the good in others in such a way that they desire to have the same for their own, and to praise their neighbors’ deeds with affection in such a way that they also multiply them by imitation. Otherwise, in this arena of the present life, they may attend the contest of others as eager supporters but idle spectators. Then they would be left without a prize after the contest, because they did not toil in it, and would look with sorrow on the palms of those in the midst of whose toils they stood idle. For we sin greatly if we do not love the good deeds of others; but we win no reward if we do not imitate, as far as we can, the things we love. So the kindly disposed should be told that if they make no haste to imitate the good they applaud, the holiness of virtue pleases them just as the empty displays of skill at the shows please foolish spectators. These cheer the performances of charioteers and actors, and yet do not long to be like the people they praise. They admire them for having done pleasing things, and yet they avoid pleasing in the same way. The kindly disposed are to be told that when they see their neighbors’ deeds they should go back into their own hearts, and not rely on actions that are not their own, nor praise what is good while they refuse to do it. Those who were pleased by what they would not imitate must indeed be struck all the more heavily by the final vengeance. [b]

The envious are to be admonished to consider how great their blindness is, who are diminished by other people’s progress and pine away at other people’s joy; and how great their unhappiness is, who are made worse by their neighbor’s improvement, and who, seeing another’s prosperity grow, are restlessly tormented within themselves and die of the plague of their own heart. What can be more unhappy than these people, who, when the sight of happiness touches them, are made more wicked by the pain of seeing it? Moreover, the good things of others that they cannot have, they could make their own if they loved them. For all are joined together in faith like the many members of one body, which differ in their tasks but are made one by agreeing with one another. So it comes about that the foot sees by the eye, and the eyes walk by the feet; that the hearing of the ears serves the mouth, and the tongue in the mouth works together with the ears for their good; that the belly supports the hands, and the hands work for the belly. In the very arrangement of the body, then, we learn what we should keep to in our conduct. It is too shameful, then, not to live up to what we are. The things we love in others are in fact ours, even if we cannot follow them; and the things that are loved in us become the property of those who love them. From this, then, let the envious consider how great the power of love is, which makes the labors of others ours without labor of our own. [c]

So the envious must be told that when they fail to keep themselves from spite, they are sinking into the ancient wickedness of the cunning enemy. For of him it is written, “But through the envy of the devil death entered the world.” Because he had lost heaven himself, he begrudged it to the man God had created; and, ruined himself, he heaped up his own damnation by ruining others. The envious are to be admonished to learn how great a slide into ruin is opening beneath them; for while they do not cast spite out of their hearts, they are slipping down into open wickedness of deeds. If Cain had not envied his brother’s accepted sacrifice, he would never have come to taking his life. That is why it is written, “And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. And Cain was very angry, and his face fell.” So spite over the sacrifice was the seedbed of the murder of a brother. The one whose being better than himself vexed him, he cut off from being at all.

The envious must be told that while they consume themselves with this inward plague, they destroy whatever good they seem to have within them. That is why it is written, “A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy is the rottenness of the bones.” For what is meant by the flesh but certain weak and tender actions, and what by the bones but brave ones? And it often happens that some, with innocence of heart, seem weak in some of their actions; while others, though they perform some strong deeds before human eyes, still pine away within from the plague of envy toward the good in others. So it is well said, “A sound heart is the life of the flesh”; for if innocence of mind is kept, even the things that are weak outwardly are strengthened in time. And rightly it is added there, “Envy is the rottenness of the bones”; for through the vice of spite, what seems strong to human eyes perishes in the eyes of God. The rotting of the bones through envy means that even certain strong things perish utterly.