Envy, the daughter of Pride

Fr O’Donohue was with us this morning and continued his series of homilies on the Seven Deadly Sins. Having spoken about Pride, the deadliest of all the sins, a few weeks ago, today he turned to Envy, which he described as a capital sin and the daughter of Pride, since both are sins of self-centredness. Envy is the state of wishing for something that someone else has which we would like.  We think we deserve it and they do not, we resent the fact that they have it, and this leads to backbiting against that person and worse.  Examples from the Bible such as Cain and Abel, Joseph and his brothers were cited, as were examples from literature such as Othello and Macbeth.

The remedies against Envy are to immediately squash any thoughts of it, as one would swat an annoying insect, and to emulate the saints and others who give a good example of charity.

We look forward to Fr O’Donohue’s next visit on 17 December to talk about another of the Deadly Sins.

by fsspuk