The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 326: Envy and Jealousy (2024)

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

Envy is “the diabolical sin,” says St. Augustine. Christians should better understand this capital sin, its manifestations, and the temptation toward envy of God and neighbor. In this episode, Fr. Mike considers jealousy and envy, noting man's desire to covet and lust. He explains that the tenth commandment develops and completes the ninth. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2534-2543. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 326, we're reading paragraphs 2534 to 2543. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can

also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and you can click follow or subscribe to podcast app for daily updates and notifications. We are just here on day three, 26 launching into our last commandment. We have two more days, including today of pillar three, and then then we're going to launch. We're going to talk to sister Miriam and we are going to have the beginning of pillar four, the final pillar of the catechism. You guys congratulations as we launch into the 10th commandment, talking about the 10th commandment, what is it? Remember, we talked about this

maybe the last three days. Commandment number nine and commandment number 10 are kind of the interiorizing, right? The heart of the commandment six. Of course, I'll say it like this. Sixth commandment rather than the commandment six. I don't know why I say it like that. The sixth commandment and seventh commandment about adultery and about theft. But all these things originate in our hearts. And so we just finished yesterday talking about the ninth commandment and the battle for purity. Today, we're talking about the 10th commandment and the fact that we shall not covet anything, even,

even goods and the goods of our neighbor or the good things that our neighbor can do as well. We recognize that there is a danger in jealousy, there is a danger in envy. In fact, not just a danger, there is something wrong about jealousy, there's something wrong about envy. In fact, paragraph 2538 says, the 10th commandment requires that envy be banished

from the human heart. And so we're gonna look at that today. As we launch into today and ask the Lord to banish envy from our heart and to banish any kind of greed or avarice from our heart. We call upon our Father because we know that without God's grace, we can do nothing of this, especially when it comes to the conversion of our hearts.

So we pray. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory in the name of your Son Jesus Christ. Please send your Holy Spirit, your Holy Spirit of truth and of light, your Holy Spirit of freedom and of joy so that we can be satisfied with what we have, that we can have a certain poverty of spirit so that we can be rid of the desire, covetous desires, greedy desires, avaricious desires. Lord God, whatever kind of jealousy we might have, whatever kind of envy we might have in our hearts, we ask that you please purify that, transform our hearts.

Lord God, as we continue to press play on this Catechism in years, we continue to return to the teachings of your church. We know that we are not just looking for more information, and you don't just want to give us more information. We're looking for transformation, and you want the depth of our conversion. Not merely the conversion of our actions, but truly the conversion of our hearts. So Father, in the name of your Son Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to convert our hearts

and make us like you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 326. We are reading paragraphs 2534 to 2543. Article 10, the 10th commandment. You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's. You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his man servant, or his maid

servant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The Tenth Commandment unfolds and completes the Ninth, which is concerned with concupiscence of the flesh. It forbids coveting the goods of another as the root of theft, robbery, and fraud which the Seventh Commandment forbids. Lust of the eyes leads to the violence and injustice forbidden by the fifth commandment. Avarice, like fornication, originates in the idolatry prohibited by the first three prescriptions of the law.

The tenth commandment concerns the intentions of the heart, with the ninth, it summarizes all the precepts of the law. The disorder of covetous desires. the law. The Disorder of Covetous Desires The sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things we do not have, for example, the desire to eat when we are hungry or to warm ourselves when we are cold. These desires are good in themselves, but often they exceed the limits of reason and drive us to covet unjustly what is not ours and belongs to another or is owed to him. The Tenth Commandment forbids greed

and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods. The Roman Catechism states, When the law says, You shall not covet, these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, never quenched. Thus it is written, He who loves money has never money enough. It is not a violation of this commandment to desire to obtain things that belong to one's neighbor, provided this is done by just means. Traditional Catechesis realistically mentions those who have a harder struggle against their

criminal desires and so who must be urged the more to keep this commandment. The Roman Catechism further states, Merchants who desire scarcity and rising prices, who cannot bear not to be the only ones buying and selling so that they themselves can sell more dearly and buy more cheaply, those who hope that their peers will be impoverished in order to realize a profit either by selling to them or buying from them, physicians who wish disease to spread, lawyers who are eager for many important cases and trials. The Tenth Commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart. When the prophet Nathan wanted to spur King David to repentance, he told him the story about the poor man who had only one eulam, that he treated like his own daughter, and

the rich man who despite the great number of his flocks envied the poor man and ended by stealing his lamb. Envy can lead to the worst crimes. The Book of Wisdom states, Through the devil's envy, death entered the world. St. John Chrysostom further stated, We fight one another, and envy arms us against one another. If everyone strives to unsettle the body of Christ, where shall we end up? We are engaged in making Christ's body a corpse. We declare ourselves members of one and the same organism, yet we devour one another like beasts. Envy is a capital sin. 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 neighbor, it is a mortal sin. St. Augustine saw envy as the diabolical sin. From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity. Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity. The baptized person should struggle against it by exercising goodwill. Envy often comes from pride. The baptized person should train himself to live in humility.

St. John Chrysostom stated, 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. The Desires of the Spirit The economy of law and grace turns men's hearts away from avarice and envy.

It initiates them into desire for the sovereign good. It instructs them in the desires of the Holy Spirit who satisfies man's heart. The God of the promises always warned man against seduction, by what from the beginning has seemed good for food, a delight to the eyes, to be desired to make one wise. The law entrusted to Israel never sufficed to justify those subject to it. It even became the instrument of lust. The gap between wanting and doing points to the conflict between God's law, which is

the law of my mind, and another law, making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members." St. Paul further states, "...but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Henceforth, Christ's faithful have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. They are led by the Spirit and follow the desires of the Spirit." Right, there we have it, paragraphs 25, 34 to 25, 43. So we're talking about this reality, of course, as we said at the very beginning, the ninth commandment and the tenth commandment sum up so much of not... I've been talking

about the sixth and seventh commandment, right? The commandment against adultery and the commandment against theft, but paragraph 2534 highlights the fact that it doesn't just talk about those two commandments. In fact, here's what it says. It includes the fifth commandment and includes all of the commandments. So let's go back to this. It says 10th commandment unfolds and completes the ninth, which is concerned about concupiscence of the flesh, right? We have that already. Forbids the coveting of the goods, lust of the eyes leads to violence and injustice forbidden by the fifth commandment. So we even see how that happens.

Going on, avarice, like fornication, originates in the idolatry prohibited by the first three commandments. And so the 10th commandment, it says here, concerns the intention of the heart, and with the ninth, it forbids the intention of the heart to be forbidden. So the tenth commandment, it says here,

concerns the intention of the heart, and with the ninthatry prohibited by the first three commandments. And so the 10th commandment, it says here, concerns the intention of the heart and with the 9th it summarizes all of the precepts of the law. What do they mean by that? They're basically saying that everything we do, every good and every evil flows from the human heart. And the 9th commandment and the 10th commandment are all about the disorder of the human heart and the ninth commandment and the tenth commandment are all about the disorder of the human heart and about Controlling that desire that disorder of the human heart Now could we have desires right in paragraph 2535 highlights this it says the sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things

We do not have like for example the desire to eat when we're hungry warm ourselves when we're cold Those desires are good enough themselves, but what happens is they exceed, it says, it says it really nicely. It says they exceed the limits of reason. Yep. That's true. You know, one Dorito is really good. A one bag of Doritos is not necessarily the same, but that's how we are. The sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things we don't have.

Um, to have a vehicle, to have some kind of vehicle to drive, get you to places is, is great. It's a good thing. But I've got to have this kind of vehicle with all the bells and whistles, that kind of situation. It can often exceed the limits of reason and go on to say, and drive us to covet unjustly what is not ours and belongs to another or is owed to him. As we just recognize that the 10th commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. That kind of greed, so interesting. I mean, we can ask ourselves the question, when is it enough?

When is enough enough? Like truly for ourselves. You know, I think a lot of times we just keep moving the goalposts when it comes to, oh, if I just have this, then I'll be satisfied. If I just have this, that will be enough. And then what happens? We get that thing, or we even get close to that thing, and we're like, well, no, no, no, no, no.

Let's just extend it a little bit more. It's not quite enough quite yet. And so we have this, if we go unchecked like this, if we do not check our hearts, that greed can just continue to, it will continue to grow. And what we used to think, I mean, think about it like this. What we would use to think as a treat, what we used to think as something is, oh my goodness, this is amazing.

I mean, look at your own life, look at our own lives and how many times would let's go back. Here's a, here's a example from growing up in the Midwest. So within the what 70s, 80s, 90s, we would have maybe on a weekend, we'd be able to go to like the video rental store and, and maybe on that same, that same night that we got to, you know, the six kids plus two parents that we got to choose one movie, maybe, maybe if it's like, okay, you can choose to one for the little kids and one for the bigger kids, that kind of situation, maybe that would be the case.

But most often it was okay You guys have to decide on one movie for everybody and then we might also have pizza that night like you're not kind of thing We maybe maybe would have pizza that night that kind of situation and it was such a big deal Remember when that kind of thing was a big deal Maybe again, you might have a different background very very you might have very different different background than me and this example might make no sense to you. But I remember when that was just, it was incredible. What a great day. And now here we are in the 21st century

and everyone has a movie theater in their pocket, right? On that magic rectangle, on your phone. There's a movie theater there. Any movie you want to watch, you could watch at any time. Some people on their lunch breaks, on their work breaks, they're watching a movie. You can have pizza every meal of the day. There are places that even sell breakfast pizzas.

And just that recognition that what used to be, wow, what a treat. I'm so grateful for this. This is incredibly special. It's like, oh, yeah, that's just, that's a Wednesday afternoon. Or you know what I'm saying? We become so desensitized and what happens is

we don't necessarily know when to say no because we don't know when enough is enough. And yet the 10th commandment says, we must not be people of greed. And we must check our desire to amass earthly goods without limit. Now paragraph 2537 goes on to say, It's not a violation of this commandment to desire to obtain things that belong to one's neighbor,

provided this is done by just means. So that's a real thing that can happen. For example, your neighbor has a nice bicycle. We'll say it like that. Your neighbor has a nice bicycle. You're like, wow, that's a really cool bicycle, where'd you get it? And he says, I got it at the bike store. Great.

And then you work hard, you save up, and you buy a bicycle like your neighbors. That's no problem. Or maybe even, hey, would you sell me your bike? Absolutely, no problem. I'm gonna get a new one anyways. And you buy your neighbor's bike. That's not a bad thing.

There are two words here, jealousy and envy. We know that jealousy is not always a horrible thing. That jealousy can be the right emotion. Jealousy can be the right thing at times. For example, God says that I'm a jealous God. Why? Because he's jealous of your heart. He's jealous of his people's heart.

So if his people are not faithful to him, he's a jealous God. He doesn't want the people to go off to another false God. So for husbands and wives to be ordinately, like legitimately jealous of one another, that is, that's legitimate. If you're married to someone, then yes, you should be jealous of their love. That their love should belong to you. The romantic love is for you alone. And if that romantic love is given to someone else, you should be jealous.

That's the proper response. So there are times when jealousy is okay. There are other times when jealousy is not okay, right? We all know that. There are times where jealousy can drive a person to do evil. There are times when jealousy can drive a person to do violence. And so that would not be appropriate,, obviously the jealousy in and of itself

There are times when it is the appropriate response to someone's behavior now envy on the other hand envy is different Envy is sadness at the good fortune sadness at the success sadness at the blessings of another And basically that this envy is, I would be happy if you didn't have what you have. That's why St. Augustine says that in paragraph 2539, that envy is the diabolical sin. That this is the key. Gregory the Great goes on to say,

from envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor and displeasure caused by his prosperity. In fact, by the envy of born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity. In fact, by the envy of the devil, death entered the world. Right? Here's the book of wisdom that states this. Because why? Because here's the devil who knows that he can't be God. The devil can't be God and he knows he can't be God. The devil cannot have all the things God has. He cannot be God and he knows this, but envy, envy is I don't care that I can't have what God has. And also here's the devil who knows that that he can't have what we have as Christians. He can't have what we have as those who have been

adopted by the father as his sons and daughters. He knows he can't have that. So here's what envy does. By the envy of the devil, death entered the world. He says, I know I can't have it. I want to make it so that you can't have it. That's what envy is. In the example, I like this example. See if you like it too. Envy is, it says in 2540, he says, envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity. And we should struggle against this by exercising goodwill, by wanting other people to be blessed.

The example, of course, I think that I like between the jealousy and envy. So again, sometimes jealousy is, is okay. Just sometimes jealousy is the appropriate response. The other times jealousy can lead a person to take something that they want, right? They can steal something. And so jealousy can say, I want to possess this. So I want it.

Okay, that's like theft. Envy is less like theft and more like vandalism. Think about it like this. I remember years ago, I think it was the day, it was literally the day before my first day of senior year in high school. And we got back to my parents' house and I noticed that the back door was broken into and someone had basically some people had come into the house and they

had robbed us. And as we went through, it was kind of scary as we went through the house, we were like, Oh, this is gone and that's gone and this gone. But there was one room that whoever the people had come into and they didn't just take stuff, they broke stuff and my dad, I remember my dad saying that, he's like, nothing gets me more mad than that. He said, I understand if someone, if they're in need,

I understand if someone wants to possess someone else's valuables, I get that. But to just wreck someone's stuff, to just break it for the sake of breaking it, like basically the idea is I don't want you to have this. Not I'm gonna take this and sell it and get some money, but I just don't want you to have this thing. I don't want you to have this nice thing.

That's the difference in some ways between jealousy and envy. Jealousy is I wanna take this for myself. Envy is I don't want you to have it. I don't even need to have it. I just don't want you to have it. Again,'t even need to have it. I just don't want you to have it again That's the form of sadness at someone else's blessings for the form of sadness at someone else's talents or their their good life So we need to we need to battle against envy by exercising goodwill by saying actually the people around us I want them to be blessed people around us, I want them to be blessed. People around us, I want them to have every good thing.

Goes on to say in paragraph 2540, envy often comes from pride, and the baptized person should train himself to live in humility. And there's this title of this beautiful quote, once again, by St. John Chrysostom, who's just the master. He says, 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. And this is the truth for you and for me right now today. There are so often, so often, that we are sad at the success of others. Maybe not everybody, but there are some people in our lives that's like, oh, why did they have to be so blessed? You know, why do they have to always, everything they touch turns to gold kind of situation in those areas. Here's the catechism. We must struggle against that envy by exercising goodwill. We must struggle against envy by praying for them and praying that God gives them even greater blessings. And that what does that do? It praises God goes on to say, because his servant could conquer envy

by rejoicing in the merits of others, God will be praised. And that's the kind of hearts that, that's the kind of hearts that God wants for us. And that's the kind of hearts we're made to have. So let's pray for those hearts. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me.

My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.