On Jealousy

There are situations when we think we need to admonish someone because the action seems not right. However when we discern further, we will notice the rhythm of our heart saying otherwise. This is when discerning our real motives come into play. Are we really concern, or we are just subtly envious? Then we try to justify and talk to others for confirmation. In the end, we end up gossiping.

Pope Francis said something about jealousy in one of his homilies reflecting on the jealousy of Saul towards David. He said, ““How ugly envy is! It is an attitude; it is an ugly sin! And jealousy or envy grows in the heart like a weed: it grows, but it doesn’t allow good plants to grow. It harms everything that its shadow seems to fall upon. There is no peace! It is a tormented heart; it is an ugly heart! But the envious heart, too – we hear it here – leads to killing, to death. And Scripture says clearly: through the envy of the devil, death entered the world.”

“Envy kills,” the Pope said. “It does not tolerate others having something that I do not have. And it always suffers, because the heart of an envious or jealous person suffers. It is a suffering heart! It is a suffering that desires ‘the death of others.’”

But how many times, he asked, “in our communities – and we don’t have to look too far to see this – are people killed, through jealousy, with the tongue? Someone is envious of this, of the other, and they begin to gossip – and gossip kills”

“I too, thinking and reflecting on this passage, invite myself – and everyone – to see if, in my heart, there is any jealousy, any envy, which always leads to death and doesn’t make me happy; because this sickness always leads us to regard the good others possess as if it were against us. And this is an ugly sin. It is the beginning of many, many crimes.”

“Let us ask the Lord to give us the grace not to open the heart to jealousy, not to open the heart to envy, because these things always lead to death.”

“According to the interpretation of Pilate – who was very intelligent, but a coward – envy was what lead to the death of Jesus: the instrument, the ultimate instrument. They handed him over out of envy. Let us also ask the Lord the grace never, because of envy, to hand over to death a brother, a sister of the parish, of the community, or even someone in our neighbourhood. Everyone has their sins; everyone has their virtues. They are specific to each individual. Look at the good, and do not kill with gossip through envy or jealousy.

With excerpt from:

(http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/01/21/pope_jealousy_and_envy_are_sins_that_kill_with_words/1202635)

by aats