(Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on September 21, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Wisdom 2: 12-24; James 4: 1-10; Mark 9: 30-37.)

"Jealousy and Envy."

I almost lost my hearing the other day.

I had my Walkman on, and I was listening to a talk by Dr. Scott Hahn on the Book of Genesis. The talk was taped during one of his classes at the University of Steubenville. At one point he was speaking about Cain and Abel, and he asked his students this question: "What was Cain feeling toward his brother before he killed him? What was his attitude toward Abel?" Well, one brave young man raised his hand and he said, "Jealousy. He felt jealousy toward his brother." Dr. Hahn said, "NO!!!!!" (That’s when I almost lost my hearing. It took me a couple of minutes to get rid of the ringing in my ears!) He then went on to make an important distinction: the distinction between jealousy and envy. He said, "Cain did not feel jealousy toward his brother, he felt envy toward him--and that was far worse. Jealousy is acquisitive, but envy is destructive. If I’m jealous of someone, I want something they have. But if I’m envious of someone, I resent the fact that they have something I don’t--and I set out to destroy it! If I’m jealous that you have a new car, I’ll want a new car for myself. But if I’m envious that you have a new car, I’ll slash your tires and pour sand into your gas tank! Cain was envious of his brother’s relationship with God, and so he decided to destroy his brother--literally!"

I mention this today because our first reading from the book of Wisdom, chapter two, is all about envy. It’s not about jealousy, it’s about envy. Hear these lines once again: "The wicked say, ‘Let us beset the just one because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the Lord.’" [Then later on it continues], "‘He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father. Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him. For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes. With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.’"

Those are not the words of jealous people--those are the words of envious people. Now it’s not a coincidence that in today’s gospel Jesus predicts his upcoming Passion. Over the years many saints and scholars have said that this passage from Wisdom is actually a direct prophecy of what happened to Jesus during the first Holy Week. I think it’s pretty obvious why they’ve said that.

But our reflection on this text should not stop with the Passion of our Lord. These words from Wisdom are also a powerful warning to us today, because we can all be tempted to envy others. No one is immune! And unfortunately many men and women seem to give in to this very common temptation without much of a struggle. The words of St. James in today’s second reading really hit the mark in this regard. James says, "You envy and you cannot acquire, so you quarrel and fight." I think there’s a great insight there: St. James is telling us that much of the conflict we experience in our lives is actually rooted in envy. Think for a moment of the conflicts in your family--think of the conflicts at school or at work--how many of them are rooted in one person’s envy of another? "Mom loves you best and I don’t like it--so I’ll make things difficult for you at home." "I don’t think you deserve that promotion. I should have gotten it--so I’ll make your life miserable here at work." In this regard, it’s gotten so bad in some of our cities that teenagers will sometimes kill other teenagers because they envy the sneakers they have. Imagine that! It used to be that they’d fight because they envied a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Now they envy people for the sneakers they wear and it motivates them to kill!!! Sounds like Cain and Abel all over again.

I would also say that much of the anti-Catholic garbage you see in the media these days is rooted in envy. Take for example, the new show that appeared this week on ABC (ABC, that’s the Antichrist Broadcasting Company.) This is a new program for the fall season about a priest who acts unpriestly. That’s the focal point of the show, from what I’ve heard and read about it. (And by the way, the main character is named "Fr. Ray." Oh joy. Well, let’s set the record straight, I don’t know the guy!!! Someone who saw the opening episode told me that he jogs and works out. That’s probably the only similarity between us!) But the question is: why do they insist on producing this kind of garbage year after year after year? My answer to that would be: "It’s envy." Most of the media moguls in Hollywood are anti-religious people who hate what the Church stands for and who envy the Church’s moral and spiritual influence in the world. They see the pope last month, for example, preaching to hundreds of thousands of young people at World Youth Day in Paris--and they are envious! They wish they had that kind of clout! And so they do what they can to undermine it all. I believe that’s the sole purpose of a show like this.

Coming back now to ourselves: How can we avoid envy in our lives? How can we keep from falling into this sin, which is one of the seven deadly sins? Well, I would say the cure for envy is two-fold:

First of all, we need to know God’s love. If we really know and understand the love that God has for us individually, we will never envy anyone else. We won’t have to. We’ll realize that God loves us totally and completely as we are! This is something that some of us may need to pray for. We may know in our heads that God cares for us, but we may not know it experientially. And so we may need to pray, "Lord, reveal to me your love. Help me to know it not only in my mind but also in my heart!"

And secondly, we need to seek God’s perfect will. That needs to be our focus as we go through our day. Because if we’re constantly trying to discern and carry out God’s will, then we won’t have time to worry about what other people have and don’t have. In other words, we won’t have time to be envious! I really believe that this was one of the keys to Mother Teresa’s holiness: she always seemed to have her eyes on God and not on other people. As Amy Grant put it in one of her songs, "All I ever have to be is what you [O Lord] made me to be." May all of us avoid the sin of envy, by becoming just what God wants us to be.