Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 28

(Admonition 11.) The benevolent are to be admonished in one way, and the envious in another. For the benevolent are to be admonished so to rejoice together in the good things of others that they may desire to have such good things of their own. So to praise the deeds of their neighbours by loving them, that they may also multiply them by imitating them; lest, if in this course of the present life they stand as devoted supporters of another's contest, but as idle spectators, they afterward remain without the prize after the contest, in that they do not now labour in the contest; and then they look upon the palms of those in whose labours they now remain at leisure, being afflicted. For we sin greatly if we do not love the good deeds of others. But we earn no reward if we do not, as far as we can, imitate the things we love.

And so it must be said to the benevolent that, if they do not at all hasten to imitate the good things which by praising they approve, the holiness of virtues pleases them just as the vanity of theatrical arts pleases foolish spectators. For those men extol with their applause the feats of charioteers and actors, yet they do not desire to be such as they behold to be those whom they praise. They marvel that these have pleased, yet nonetheless they avoid pleasing in like manner. It must be said to the benevolent that, when they behold the deeds of their neighbours, they should return to their own heart, and not presume upon the acts of others; lest they praise good things and refuse to do them. For they are to be smitten the more grievously with the final vengeance, to whom that which they were unwilling to imitate was pleasing.

The envious are to be admonished to weigh how great a blindness is theirs, who fail at another's advancement, who waste away at another's exultation. How great an unhappiness is theirs, who become worse at their neighbour's betterment; and while they behold the increases of another's prosperity, being anxiously afflicted within themselves, they die of the plague of their own heart. What is more unhappy than these, whom the felicity beheld afflicts, and punishment renders more wicked? But the good things of others, which they cannot have, if they loved them, they would make their own. For all who stand together in the faith are just as many members in one body: which are indeed diverse in office, but by that whereby they mutually fit together, become one. Whence it comes to pass that the foot sees through the eye, and the eyes walk through the feet;

the hearing of the ears serves the mouth, and the tongue of the mouth runs to the use of the ears; the belly assists the hands, and the hands work for the belly. From the very disposition of the body, therefore, we take what we should observe in action. It is exceedingly base, then, not to imitate what we are. Ours indeed are those things which, even if we cannot imitate them, we love in others; and the things loved in us belong to those who love them. Hence, then, let the envious ponder how great a virtue is charity, which makes the works of another's labour our own without labour. And so it must be said to the envious that, while they do not in the least guard themselves from spite, they are plunged into the ancient wickedness of the cunning enemy. For of him it is written: 'But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world' (Wisd. 2:24).

For because he himself lost heaven, he envied it to man newly created, and, being himself lost, he still heaped up his own damnation by destroying others. The envious are to be admonished to recognize down what falls of ever-increasing ruin they lie subject, because, while they do not cast spite from the heart, they slide down to open wickednesses of works. For unless Cain had envied his brother's accepted offering, he would by no means have come to extinguishing his life. Whence it is written: 'And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his gifts; but to Cain and to his gifts he had not respect. And Cain was exceedingly angry, and his countenance fell' (Gen. 4:4-5). Spite over the sacrifice, then, was the seed-bed of fratricide. For him whom he grieved to be better than himself, that he might in no wise be at all, he cut off.

It must be said to the envious that, while they consume themselves inwardly with this plague, they also destroy whatever else of good they seem to have in themselves. Whence it is written: 'The life of the flesh is soundness of heart; envy is the rottenness of the bones' (Prov. 14:30). For what is signified by the flesh but certain weak and tender things, and what by the bones but strong deeds? And it often happens that some, with innocence of heart, seem weak in some of their acts, while others already perform certain things robust before human eyes, yet nonetheless waste away inwardly with the pestilence of envy toward the good things of others. Well, then, is it said: 'The life of the flesh is soundness of heart'; because if the innocence of the mind is guarded, even if some things are outwardly weak, they are at some time strengthened.

And rightly is it there added: 'Envy is the rottenness of the bones,' because through the vice of spite even those things which seem strong to human eyes perish before the eyes of God. For the bones to rot through envy is for even certain robust things to perish.