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Illustration: Cain leadeth Abel to death, by James Tissot, c. 1900
Pope Francis’ Catechesis. Vices and virtues. 9. Envy and vainglory
Paul VI Audience Hall – Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Galatians 5:24-26
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today we are going to examine two deadly sins found in the great lists that the spiritual tradition has bequeathed to us: envy and vainglory.
Let’s start with envy.
If we read the Sacred Scriptures it seems to us to be one of the oldest vices: Cain’s hatred of Abel is unleashed when he realizes that his brother’s sacrifices are pleasing to God
(Genesis 4 – Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Cain said to Abel his brother, “Let us go out to the field.”[c] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him),.
Cain was the firstborn of Adam and Eve, he had taken most of his father’s inheritance;
And yet, it is enough for Abel, the younger brother, to succeed in a small enterprise, for Cain to turn dark. The face of the envious person is always sad: his gaze is downcast, he seems to be constantly searching the ground, but in reality he sees nothing, because his mind is enveloped in thoughts full of malice.
Envy, if left unchecked, leads to hatred of the other. Abel has been killed by Cain, who could not bear his brother’s happiness.
Envy is an evil that has been studied not only in the Christian sphere: it has attracted the attention of philosophers and scholars of every culture.
At its root there is a relationship of hate and love: one wants the other to be evil, but secretly one want to be like the other.
The other is the epiphany of what we would like to be, and what we really are not.
His happiness seems to us an injustice: surely – we think – we deserve his successes or his good fortune much more!
At the root of this vice is a false conception of God: we do not accept that God has his own “mathematics”, different from ours.
For example, in Jesus’ parable of the workers called by the master to work in the vineyard at different times of the day, those who arrived first think they are entitled to a higher wage than those who arrived last; but the master gives everyone the same wage, and says, “Can’t I do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am good?” (Mt 20:15).
We would like to impose our selfish logic on God, but God’s logic is love.
The goods that He gives us are meant to be shared.
This is why Saint Paul exhorts Christians: “Love one another with brotherly affection and compete in esteem for one another” (Rom 12:10). Here is the remedy for envy!
Second vice: Vainglory
And we come to the second vice we are examining today: vainglory (or vanity).
It goes hand in hand with the demon of envy, and together these two vices are appropriate to a person who aspires to be the center of the world, free to exploit everything and everyone, the object of all praise and love.
Vainglory is an inflated and unfounded sense of self-worth.
The boastful person has a ponderous “I”: he has no empathy and does not realize that there are other people in the world besides himself.
His relationships are always instrumental, marked by the oppression of the other.
His person, his deeds, his successes must be shown to everyone: he is a perpetual beggar for attention. And when his qualities are not recognised, he becomes very angry.
Others are unfair, they don’t understand, they don’t measure up.
In his writings, Evagrius Ponticus describes the bitter story of some monk stricken by vainglory.
It happens that, after the first successes in the spiritual life, he feels that he has already arrived, and so he rushes out into the world to receive its praise. But he does not understand that he is only at the beginning of the spiritual journey, and that a temptation is lurking which will soon make him fall.
To heal the boastful, spiritual masters do not suggest many remedies.
Because the evil of vanity has its remedy in itself: the praise which the vainglorious man hoped to reap in the world will soon turn against him. And how many people, deceived by a false image of themselves, have then fallen into sins of which they would soon be ashamed!
The most beautiful instruction for overcoming vainglory can be found in the testimony of St. Paul.
The apostle was always confronted with a defect that he was could never overcome.
Three times he asked the Lord to deliver him from this torment, but in the end Jesus answered him:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
From that day on, Paul was set free. And his conclusion should also become ours: “I will gladly boast of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may remain in me” (2 Cor 12:9).
