Zeal

What is envy? Envy is sadness concerning the good of another, insofar as it is diminutive of one's own glory. - Moreover, in five ways can someone be saddened concerning the good of another: 1. When someone is saddened concerning the good of another absolutely, because it is the good of the neighbor; and properly this is hatred of enmity, or simply hatred or aversion of the person to whom we will evil, insofar as it is his evil; and this indeed from its genus is mortal. 2. When someone is saddened concerning the good of neighbor relatively, because he fears some evil from him; and properly this is fear, which will be licit unless it is inordinate, e.g., if he fears evil is to be inflicted on himself or on others unjustly. 3. When someone is saddened concerning the good of another because he thinks the same person unworthy of such good; and this is indignation or abomination, which is not a sin; nevertheless it will be a sin, and indeed mortal, if it either accuses God's providence, and is blasphemy, or if it so affects that it leads men to imitate evil. 4. When someone is saddened concerning the good of neighbor, not because the neighbor has it, but because he himself lacks the same, and this is not envy, but emulation or zeal, which, if it concerns honorable good, is praiseworthy; but if it concerns temporal goods, sometimes it is venial, as if the good is disproportionate to the one grieving, such as it would be if a peasant grieved that he is not a king. 5. If someone grieves that another equal to himself, or not greatly unequal, grows in glory and excellence, so that thereby he becomes superior to him, and he apprehends the very increase of glory and excellence as an impediment to his own good and as an evil to himself, insofar as it is diminutive of his own glory and excellence; and this is envy properly so called. For he is called envious because he is not seeing, since he cannot see the goods of another without sadness. Equal or not greatly unequal, because the good of those who greatly excel us is not usually apprehended as diminishing our excellence and glory. The goods of another, especially those in which there is glory, and in which men love to be honored and to be in good opinion.

Envy is mortal from its genus, Gal. 5:21. For it is directly against charity, which rejoices concerning the good of neighbor, which envy desires destroyed or grieves is not destroyed. - S. Th. 2. 2. q. 36; L. 72. "Pride alone and envy are purely spiritual sins, which can belong to demons." S. Th. 1 p., q. 63, a. 2 ad 2.

730. (A) Notion and species of love. Love in general is a movement toward good, or the complacency of the appetite in good. A threefold love is usually distinguished: natural, sensible, and rational.

³ St. Thomas, I-II, q. 26-29; St. Francis de Sales, Tr. de l'Am. de Dieu (ed. Annecy, 1894), l. I, ch. 1-13; Barre, De virtutibus, t. I, n. 12-20.

(a) Natural love is a certain propensity of any being toward its own proper end: for each thing seeks its own end, and is borne toward it by a certain natural instinct. This exists even in beings lacking liberty, and is not properly a moral act; accordingly we shall not treat it here. (b) Sensible, or sensitive, love is one of the eleven passions described above, n. 100, and can be defined as the complacency of the sensitive appetite in a sensibly apprehended good. It is therefore concerned with qualities which please the senses, and is not borne toward intelligible good except insofar as this kind of good is presented sensibly to the appetite by the imagination. But because these qualities are frivolous and mutable, the love which is born from them is vain and inconstant.⁴ - If it exists between persons of different sex, in order to carnal delights, it is called sexual love, and often passes into a vehement passion.⁵

⁴ "Love founded upon the communication of sensual pleasures is altogether gross, and unworthy of the name of friendship, as also that which glories in certain vain and frivolous endowments perceived by the senses. But I call sensual pleasures those which immediately and principally are concerned with the external senses, such as that pleasure which arises from the sight of bodily beauty, from the hearing of a sweet voice, from soft touch, and others of this kind. But I call frivolous endowments certain vain habits of nature, which the inexperienced and futile call by the name of virtues and perfections... Thus he is judged to be endowed with great virtue who dances elegantly, is most skilled in every kind of game, dresses elegantly, sings, jokes, or converses, and has elegant gestures." (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction, p. III, c. 17).

⁵ Descuret, op. cit., t. II, p. 151-180; Vieux Moraliste, apud Ami du Clerge, t. XXI, 1899, p. 129-137 and 241-248; Ribot, Psychologie des sentiments, Paris, 1896, p. 244-255.

745. This love consists in this, that, insofar as we can, we will good to God. It embraces three acts, namely joy concerning the divine goods, desire of increasing the same, insofar as this can be done, and zeal for promoting the glory of God.

1. Joy, or complacency, concerning the goods which God possesses; for when we truly love someone, we have his goods as our own, and therefore we rejoice concerning his goods and take complacency in them, as if they were our own. Christ insinuates this in these words:² "If you loved Me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father," namely because I leave this valley of misery, that I may obtain divine felicity.

² John 14:28.

(a) Wherefore the just rejoice concerning the infinite perfections of God considered in themselves, concerning His power, wisdom, kindness, etc.; indeed they rejoice more concerning the glory of God than concerning their own beatitude. Thus Augustine is reported to have said:³ "Lord God, I love Thee so, that if I were God and Thou Augustine, I would will myself to be Augustine, that Thou mightest be God." Thus likewise St. Francis de Sales:⁴ "O most beloved of my heart, I do not indeed desire that I could wish anything good to Thy majesty, but with my whole heart I take complacency in that supreme degree of goodness which Thou hast, to which neither by desire nor even by thought can anything be added; but, if such a desire were possible, O infinite Deity and divine Infinity, my soul would wish to be this very desire and nothing else." (b) They rejoice likewise concerning the external manifestation of the attributes of God, and therefore concerning divine providence, which disposes all things sweetly and strongly, concerning the extension of the kingdom of God, concerning the external glory which He receives from the Angels, the Saints reigning in heaven, and also the just on earth fighting for His honor. (c) From this complacency there spontaneously arises praise of God, by which we congratulate Him concerning all things which contribute to His glory: "Glory to God in the highest... We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we glorify Thee... Thee, O God, we praise, Thee, O Lord, we confess."⁵

³ St. Francis de Sales, op. cit., l. V, ch. 6.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ In the psalms and liturgical prayers of the Church the divine praises are continually celebrated.