Moralia in Job 267

Ibid. And envy slayeth the little one. 84. The envious man testifies that he is inferior to the one he envies. For we cannot envy save those whom we deem in some respect better than ourselves. He, therefore, is a little one who is slain by malice, because he himself bears witness against himself that he is inferior to the one by whose envy he is tormented. Hence it is that the crafty enemy, by envying the first man, snatched him away, because, having lost blessedness, he acknowledged himself inferior to that man's immortality. Hence it is that Cain fell to the perpetration of fratricide (Gen. 4:5-7); because, his own sacrifice being despised, he growled at the one preferred to him, whose offering God accepted; and him whom he shuddered to be better than himself, he cut off, that he might in no wise be so. Hence Esau blazed out to the persecution of his brother (Gen.

25:34; 27:41), because, the blessing of the firstborn being lost — which he himself had nevertheless sold for a meal of lentils — he groaned that he was inferior to the one whom by birth he preceded. Hence Joseph's brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites passing by (Gen. 37:27, 28), because, having learned the mystery of the revelation, they tried to oppose his advancements, lest he should become better than they. Hence Saul persecutes David, his subject, by hurling a lance (1 Sam. 18:11), because he whom he perceived to be daily increased by great successes of the virtues, he dreaded to grow beyond himself. He, therefore, is a little one who is slain by envy, because unless he himself existed as an inferior, he would not grieve over another's good. 85.

In envy the ancient serpent shakes out and vomits all his venom. A description of the envious. But amid these things it must be known that, although through every vice which is committed the venom of the ancient enemy is poured into the human heart, yet in this wickedness the serpent shakes out all his inward parts and vomits the plague of the malice to be imprinted. Of which indeed it is written: By the envy of the devil death entered into the world (Wisd. 2:24). For when the rottenness of malice has corrupted the vanquished heart, the very outward parts also indicate how grievously frenzy goads the soul. The color is indeed affected with pallor, the eyes are cast down, the mind is inflamed, and the limbs grow cold; there is rage in the thought, gnashing in the teeth;

and while the growing hatred is hidden in the recesses of the heart, the enclosed wound bores through the conscience with a blind grief. Nothing of one's own gives pleasure, because a person's own penalty wounds the wasting mind, which another's happiness torments; and the more the fabric of a stranger's work is raised on high, the more deeply is the foundation of the envious mind undermined; so that, in the very degree that others hasten toward better things, in that degree he himself falls to worse; by which ruin, indeed, even that is destroyed which was thought to have risen up by a perfect work in his other acts. For when envy has wasted the mind, it consumes all the well-done things it finds. Whence it is well said through Solomon: 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, save certain weak and tender things; and what by the bones, save strong deeds? And it very often happens that some, with true innocence of heart, seem weak in some of their acts; while others already perform certain deeds robust before human eyes, yet nevertheless waste away inwardly with the pestilence of envy toward the good things of others. Well, therefore, 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 subjoined: Envy is the rottenness of the bones, because through the vice of malice even the strong deeds of the virtues perish before the eyes of God. For the bones to rot through envy is for even certain robust things to perish. 86.

The diminution and death of envy is the begun or perfected love of eternity. But why do we say these things about envy, if we do not also intimate in what manner it is to be rooted out? For it is difficult that one should not see in another that which another longs to attain; because whatever temporal thing is received becomes so much the less to individuals, the more it is divided among many; and therefore malice tortures the mind of the one who desires, because that which he covets, another, by receiving it, either wholly takes away or restricts in quantity. He, therefore, who desires to be fully free from the plague of malice, let him love that inheritance which the number of coheirs does not straiten; which is both one to all and whole to each; which is shown to be so much the more ample, the more the multitude of those receiving it is enlarged.

The diminution, therefore, of malice is the rising affection of inward sweetness, and the full death of it is the perfect love of eternity. For when the mind is drawn back from the appetite for that thing which is parted among the number of those receiving it, it loves its neighbor so much the more, the less it dreads its own losses from that other's advancement. And if it is perfectly caught up into love of the heavenly fatherland, it is also fully made solid in love of the neighbor, without any envy; because, when it desires nothing earthly, there is nothing to contradict its charity toward the neighbor. And what indeed is this charity but the eye of the mind, which, if it is touched by the dust of earthly love, is soon struck and dazzled away from the gaze of the inward light?

But because he is a little one who loves earthly things, and great who covets eternal things, it can also be understood, not inappropriately, in this way: Envy slayeth the little one, since none dies of the languor of this plague save he who is still enfeebled by desires.