Envy

Homily for Thursday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time

Angus Wilson, a British 20^th Century novelist compared envy to several of the other seven capital sins. He said that envy has an uglier face than lust’s bloodshot eyes or gluttony’s paunch or pride’s camel nose or avarice’s thin lips. Envy or jealousy is born out of greed and leads to other sins such as discord, resentment, hatred, and distrust. All of these sins are very evident in the story of Saul and David. Once again we are getting the Reader’s Digest version of this story so it would be beneficial to pick up your bible today and read the whole story from the First Book of Samuel.

Envy is usually born out of a misunderstanding about reward. As you know, the quest for honor is one of the commodities that drives the men and women of the Hebrew Scriptures. So when the women sing their song praising both Saul and David, Saul focuses on the fact that David seems to enjoy more honor than he does. Falsely believing that such honor is in limited supply, Saul comes to the belief that rather than being praised for the victory over the Philistines, he is actually being shamed. Ultimately he is placing limits on God. If God loves David, is there any love left over for him. If God showers honors upon David, will God have anything left over for him.

It works the same way for us. People who are jealous or envious secretly believe that if someone has more, then there will not be enough for them. This reinforces the greed that led them to be envious in the first place and creates one of those spiraling circles that leads us into depression and dejection.

God loves us all and cherishes each of us according to our needs. God supplies whatever we need. This is ably demonstrated in the Hebrew language which has many different words that express forgiveness and love. Each word speaks to a different level of need.

In today’s Gospel, people are so intent on getting close enough to Jesus that they will be able to touch him. They believe that his healing power will be released for them by touch so they tend to crowd around him. We are blessed with the possibility of touching Jesus every day. We need not be jealous or envious of anyone else because Jesus makes himself available to all of us equally. We touch him in the Eucharist, a powerful sacrament of reconciliation for all of us.