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 SPIRITUAL
DIRECTION FOR TODAY
[The works of a well known Catholic Spiritual Director will
be featured in this space each week.]
SERMONS OF SAINT JOHN
VIANNEY
GREAT CONFESSOR OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
(1786-1859)
Life Summary of Saint
John Vianney
A PUBLIC PLAGUE
As you know my dear brethren, we are bound as fellow
creatures to have human sympathy and feelings for one another. Yet one envious
person would like, if he possibly could, to destroy everything good and
profitable belonging to his neighbour. You know, too, that as Christians we must
have boundless charity for our fellow men. But the envious person is far removed
indeed from such virtues. He would be happy to see his fellow man ruin himself.
Every mark of God's generosity towards his neighbour is like a knife thrust that
pierces his heart and causes him to die in secret. Since we are all members of
the same Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head, we should so strive that unity,
charity, love, and zeal can be seen in one and all. To make us all happy, we
should rejoice, as St. Paul tells, in the happiness of our fellow men and mourn
with those who have cares or troubles. But, very far from experiencing such
feelings, the envious are forever uttering scandals and calumnies against their
neighbours. It appears to them that in this way they can do something to assuage
and sweeten their vexation.
But, unfortunately, we have not said all that can be said about envy. This is
the deadly vice which hurls kings and emperors from their thrones. Why do you
think, my dear brethren, that among these kings, these emperors, these men who
occupy the first places in the world of men, some are driven out of their places
of privilege, some are poisoned, others are stabbed? It is simply because
someone wants to rule in their place. It is not the food, nor the drink, nor the
habitations that the authors of such crimes want. Not at all. They are consumed
with envy.
Take another example. Here is a merchant who wants to have all the business
for himself and to leave nothing at all for anyone else. If someone leaves his
store to go elsewhere, he will do his best to say all the evil he can, either
about the rival businessman himself or else about the quality of what he sells.
He will take all possible means to ruin his rival's reputation, saying that the
other's goods are not of the same quality as his own or that the other man gives
short weight. You will notice, too, than an envious man like this has a
diabolical trick to add to all this: "It would not do," he will tell you, "for
you to say this to anyone else; it might do harm and that would upset me very
much. I am only telling you because I would not like to see you being cheated."
A workman may discover that someone else is now going to work in a house
where previously he was always employed.
This angers him greatly, and he will do everything in his power to run down
this "interloper" so that he will not be employed there after all.
Look at the father of a family and see how angry he becomes if his next-door
neighbour prospers more than he or if the neighbour's land produces more. Look
at a mother: she would like it if people spoke well of no children except hers.
If anyone praises the children of some other family to her and does not say
something good of hers, she will reply, "They are not perfect," and she will
become quite upset. How foolish you are, poor mother! The praise given to others
will take nothing from your children.
Just look at the jealousy of a husband in respect of his wife or of a wife in
respect of her husband. Notice how they inquire into everything the other does
and says, how they observe everyone to whom the other speaks, every house into
which the other enters. If one notices the other speaking to someone, there will
be accusations of all sorts of wrongdoing, even though the whole episode may
have been completely innocent.
This is surely a cursed sin which puts a barrier between brothers and
sisters, too. The very moment that a father or a mother gives more to one member
of the family than the others, you will see the birth of this jealous hatred
against the parent or against the favoured brother or sister -- a hatred which
may last for years, and sometimes even for a lifetime. There are children who
keep a watchful eye upon their parents just to insure that they will not give
any sort of gift or privilege to one member of the family. If this should occur
in spite of them, there is nothing bad enough that they will not say.
We can see that this sin makes its first appearance among children. You will
notice the petty jealousies they will feel against one another if they observe
any preferences on the part of the parents. A young man would like to be the
only one considered to have intelligence, or learning, or a good character. A
girl would like to be the only one who is loved, the only one well dressed, the
only one sought after; if others are more popular than she, you will see her
fretting and upsetting herself, even weeping, perhaps, instead of thanking God
for being neglected by creatures so that she may be attached to Him alone. What
a blind passion envy is, my dear brethren! Who could hope to understand it?
Unfortunately, this vice can be noted even among those in whom it should
never be encountered -- that is to say, among those who profess to practice
their religion. They will take note of how many times such a person remains to
go to Confession or of how So-and-So kneels or sits when she is saying her
prayers. They will talk of these things and criticise the people concerned, for
they think that such prayers or good works are done only so that they may be
seen, or in other words, that they are purely an affectation. You may tire
yourself out telling them that their neighbour's actions concern him alone. They
are irritated and offended if the conduct of others is thought to be superior to
their own.
You will see this even among the poor. If some kindly person gives a little
bit extra to one of them, they will make sure to speak ill of him to their
benefactor in the hope of preventing him from benefiting on any further
occasion. Dear Lord, what a detestable vice this is! It attacks all that is
good, spiritual as well as temporal.
We have already said that this vice indicates a mean and petty spirit. That
is so true that no one will admit to feeling envy, or at least no one wants to
believe that he has been attacked by it. People will employ a hundred and one
devices to conceal their envy from others. If someone speaks well of another in
our presence, we keep silence: we are upset and annoyed. If we must say
something, we do so in the coldest and most unenthusiastic fashion. No, my dear
children, there is not a particle of charity in the envious heart. St. Paul has
told us that we must rejoice in the good which befalls our neighbour.
Joy, my dear brethren, is what Christian charity should inspire in us for one
another. But the sentiments of the envious are vastly different.
I do not believe that there is a more ugly and dangerous sin than envy
because it is hidden and is often covered by the attractive mantle of virtue or
of friendship. Let us go further and compare it to a lion which we thought was
muzzled, to a serpent covered by a handful of leaves which will bite us without
our noticing it. Envy is a public plague which spares no one.
We are leading ourselves to Hell without realising it.
But how are we then to cure ourselves of this vice if we do not think we are
guilty of it? I am quite certain that of the thousands of envious souls honestly
examining their consciences, there would not be one ready to believe himself
belonging to that company. It is the least recognised of sins.
Some people are so profoundly ignorant that they do not recognise a quarter
of their ordinary sins. And since the sin of envy is more difficult to know, it
is not surprising that so few confess it and correct it. Because they are not
guilty of the big public sins committed by coarse and brutalised people, they
think that the sins of envy are only little defects in charity, when, in fact,
for the most part, these are serious and deadly sins which they are harbouring
and tending in their hearts, often without fully recognising them.
"But," you may be thinking in your own minds, "if I really recognised them, I
would do my best to correct them."
If you want to be able to recognise them, my dear brethren, you must ask the
Holy Ghost for His light. He alone will give you this grace. No one could, with
impunity, point out these sins to you; you would not wish to agree nor to accept
them; you would always find something which would convince you that you had made
no mistake in thinking and acting in the way you did. Do you know yet what will
help to make you know the state of your soul and to uncover this evil sin hidden
in the secret recesses of your heart? It is humility. Just as pride will hide it
from you, so will humility reveal it to you.
____________
SERMONS OF SAINT JOHN VIANNEY, THE CURE
OF ARS
| 
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
PRAY
FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA AND VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN 
MARIAN PRAYER
THREE
HAIL MARY'S
PRAYER TO SAVE THE LIVES OF UNBORN CHILDREN
PRAYER
TO PROTECT ALL MILITARY TROOPS FIGHTING FOR PEACE
PRAYER
FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALING
