Зависть

Envy comes from pride and, together, from negligence in doing what is due. Cain neglected to offer his chosen sacrifice to God. And when God despised his sacrifice for such negligence, and accepted Abel’s zealous and chosen sacrifice, then he, overwhelmed with envy, decided to kill and killed the righteous Abel. It’s best... to try to destroy envy at the very beginning with humble prayer and humble confession and prudent silence (2, part 2, p. 28). ...Envy is first revealed by inappropriate jealousy and rivalry, and then by zeal with annoyance and censure of the one we envy (2, part 2, p. 29). The passion of envy does not, on any joyful holiday, under any joyful circumstances, allow one to fully rejoice at the one it possesses. Always, like a worm, a vague sadness gnaws at his soul and heart, because an envious person considers the well-being and success of his neighbor to be his misfortune, and considers the preference given to others to be an unfair insult. One Greek king wanted to know which of the two was worse, the money-lover or the envious one, because both did not wish the other good. For this purpose, he ordered to call the money-lover and the envious one to him and said to them: “Ask each of you from me whatever he wants, just know that the second will receive twice what the first asks.” The money-lover and the envious man bickered for a long time, not wanting to each ask first, so that later they could receive double. Finally the king told the envious one to ask first. The envious one, being overwhelmed by ill will towards his neighbors, instead of receiving, turned to malice and said to the king: “Sire! order me to gouge out my eye.” The surprised king asked why he expressed such a desire. The envious one answered: “So that you, sir, order my comrade to gouge out both eyes.” This is how the passion of envy is harmful and harmful to the soul, but also malicious. An envious person is ready to expose himself to harm in order to harm his neighbor twice as much. We have set the strongest degree of envy here. But it, like all other passions, has different sizes and degrees, and therefore one should try to suppress it and destroy it at the first sensation, praying to the Almighty Heart-Seer God with psalm words: Cleanse me from my secrets and spare Thy servant or Thy servant from the alien ones (see Ps. 18:13-14). One must also humbly confess this weakness before the spiritual father. And the third remedy is to try in every possible way not to say anything nasty about the person we envy. By using these means, we can, with God’s help, although not soon, be healed from envious weakness (2, part 2, pp. 27–28). If you want to get rid of both envy and soul-harming jealousy, use the same remedy, praying: Cleanse me from my secrets, O Lord (see Ps. 18:13), and thinking that the spiritual is inexhaustible: no one will delight yours, just as you will not be lacking for anyone else (2, part 2, pp. 87-88). You write that, seeing yourself worse than others, you are inclined to envy. Turn this feeling around and reap the benefits. Seeing oneself worse than others serves as the beginning of humility, if only a person reproaches himself for the admixture of nasty feelings and thoughts and tries to reject this harmful admixture. If you give room for humility to settle in your soul, then in the process you will receive peace from various spiritual burdens. There is also nothing to envy about those who are wealthy in appearance. An example before your eyes is that even those who have a rich fortune do not enjoy peace of mind. This requires not external support, but firm trust in God. If this provision was useful to you, then the Lord would have sent you wealth. But apparently this is not useful for you. At the same time, you should know that sometimes people, due to their own negligence, done ever before, are subsequently subjected to difficult circumstances. In this case, one must arm oneself against embarrassment with self-reproach, and with the help of God a person will calm down. You cannot justify yourself by doing good in such embarrassment, according to the spiritual law: “having done something good to someone, expect a sorrowful temptation for this.” It is not in vain that the apostle says: If we live in the spirit, then we must walk in the spirit. Let us not be vain, irritate each other, envy each other (Gal. 5:25-26). Notice these two signs that are not characteristic of a godly life (16, pp. 237–238). You might be interested in: