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

3. Wherefore, beloved brethren, against all the devil’s deceiving snares or open threatenings, the mind ought to stand arrayed and armed, ever as ready to repel as the foe is ever ready to attack. And since those darts of his which creep on us in concealment are more frequent, and his more hidden and secret hurling of them is the more severely and frequently effectual to our wounding, in proportion as it is the less perceived, let us also be watchful to understand and repel these, among which is the evil of jealousy and envy. And if any one closely look into this, he will find that nothing should be more guarded against by the Christian, nothing more carefully watched, than being taken captive by envy and malice, that none, entangled in the blind snares of a deceitful enemy, in that the brother is turned by envy to hatred of his brother, should himself be unwittingly destroyed by his own sword. That we may be able more fully to collect and more plainly to perceive this, let us recur to its fount and origin.  Let us consider whence arises jealousy, and when and how it begins. For so mischievous an evil will be more easily shunned by us, if both the source and the magnitude of that same evil be known.4    [Chrysostom, vol. iv. p. 473, ed. Migne. This close practical preaching is a lesson to the younger clergy of our days.]

III. Quamobrem, fratres dilectissimi, contra omnes diaboli fallaces insidias vel apertas minas stare debet instructus animus et armatus, tam paratus semper ad repugnandum quam est ad impugnandum semper paratus inimicus. Et, quoniam frequentiora sunt tela ejus quae latenter obrepunt, magisque occulta et clandestina jaculatio quo minus perspicitur, hoc et 0640B gravius et crebrius in vulnera nostra grassatur, ad haec quoque intelligenda et depellenda vigilemus ex quibus est zeli et livoris malum. Quod si quis penitus inspiciat, inveniet nihil magis Christiano cavendum, nihil cautius providendum quam ne quis invidia et livore capiatur; ne quis fallentis inimici caecis laqueis implicatus, dum zelo frater in fratris odia convertitur, gladio suo nescius ipse perimatur. Quod ut colligere plenius et manifestius perspicere possimus, ad caput ejus atque originem recurramus. Videamus unde zelus, et quando et quomodo coeperit. Facilius enim a nobis malum tam perniciosum vitabitur, si ejusdem mali et origo et magnitudo noscatur.