On Jealousy and Envy.

 1. To be jealous of what you see to be good, and to be envious of those who are better than yourself, seems, beloved brethren, in the eyes of some peo

 2. He goeth about every one of us and even as an enemy besieging those who are shut up (in a city), he examines the walls, and tries whether there is

 3. Wherefore, beloved brethren, against all the devil’s deceiving snares or open threatenings, the mind ought to stand arrayed and armed, ever as read

 4. From this source, even at the very beginnings of the world, the devil was the first who both perished (himself) and destroyed (others). He who was

 5. Hence, in fine, began the primal hatreds of the new brotherhood, hence the abominable fratricides, in that the unrighteous Cain is jealous of the r

 6. Considering which things, beloved brethren, let us with vigilance and courage fortify our hearts dedicated to God against such a destructiveness of

 7. But what a gnawing worm of the soul is it, what a plague-spot of our thoughts, what a rust of the heart, to be jealous of another, either in respec

 8. Hence the threatening countenance, the lowering aspect, pallor in the face, trembling on the lips, gnashing of the teeth, mad words, unbridled revi

 9. The mischief is much more trifling, and the danger less, when the limbs are wounded with a sword. The cure is easy where the wound is manifest and

 10. And therefore, beloved brethren, the Lord, taking thought for this risk, that none should fall into the snare of death through jealousy of his bro

 11. Why do you rush into the darkness of jealousy? why do you enfold yourself in the cloud of malice? why do you quench all the light of peace and cha

 12. We ought to remember by what name Christ calls His people, by what title He names His flock. He calls them sheep, that their Christian innocence m

 13. Thus also the Apostle Paul, when he was urging the merits of peace and charity, and when he was strongly asserting and teaching that neither faith

 14. Vices and carnal sins must be trampled down, beloved brethren, and the corrupting plague of the earthly body must be trodden under foot with spiri

 15. For this is to change what you had been, and to begin to be what you were not, that the divine birth might shine forth in you, that the godly disc

 16. The mind must be strengthened, beloved brethren, by these meditations. By exercises of this kind it must be confirmed against all the darts of the

 17. 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

 18. And you have many things to consider. Think of paradise, whither Cain does not enter, who by jealousy slew his brother. Think of the heavenly king

11. Why do you rush into the darkness of jealousy? why do you enfold yourself in the cloud of malice? why do you quench all the light of peace and charity in the blindness of envy? why do you return to the devil, whom you had renounced? why do you stand like Cain? For that he who is jealous of his brother, and has him in hatred, is bound by the guilt of homicide, the Apostle John declares in his epistle, saying, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath life abiding in him.”22    1 John iii. 15. And again: “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.”23    1 John ii. 9–11.  Whosoever hates, says he, his brother, walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth. For he goeth unconsciously to Gehenna, in ignorance and blindness; he is hurrying into punishment, departing, that is, from the light of Christ, who warns and says, “I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”24    John viii. 12. But he follows Christ who stands in His precepts, who walks in the way of His teaching, who follows His footsteps and His ways, who imitates that which Christ both did and taught; in accordance with what Peter also exhorts and warns, saying, “Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that ye should follow His steps.”25    1 Pet. ii. 21.

XI. Quid in zeli tenebras ruis? quid te nubilo livoris involvis? quid invidiae caecitate omne pacis et charitatis lumen extinguis? quid ad diabolum cui renuntiaveras redis? quid Cain similis existis? Homicidii namque facinore constringi eum qui zelaverit et edio habuerit fratrem suum, declarat Joannes apostolus in Epistola sua dicens: Qui fratrem suum odit, 0646Ahomicida est; et scitis quia omnis homicida non habet in se vitam manentem (I Joan. III, 15). Et iterum: Qui dicit se in luce esse, et fratrem suum odit, in tenebris est usque adhuc, et in tenebris ambulat, et non scit quo eat ; quoniam tenebrae excaecaverunt oculus ejus (Ibid. II, 9-11). Qui odit, inquit, fratrem suum, in tenebris ambulat, et non scit quo eat. It enim nescius in gehennam, ignarus et caecus praecipitatur in poenam, recedens scilicet a Christi lumine monentis et dicentis: Ego sum lumen mundi. Qui me secutus fuerit non ambulabit in tenebris, sed habebit lumen vitae (Joan. VIII, 12). Sequitur autem Christum qui praeceptis ejus insistit, qui per magisterii ejus viam graditur, qui vestigia ejus atque itinera sectatur, qui id quod Christus et docuit et fecit imitatur, secundum 0646B quod Petrus quoque hortatur et monet dicens: Christus passus est pro nobis , relinquens vobis exemplum ut sequamini vestigia ejus (I Pet. II, 21).