How to Grow in the Battle Against Envy

A sadness against nature

The first step in the fight is to understand what envy is, because it hides itself. It is not admiration, nor the legitimate desire to progress, nor holy emulation that pushes one to imitate someone better than oneself. Envy is a sadness: a pain the soul conceives, not from its own evil, but from the good of another. Saint Basil, in his homily on envy, gives the clearest definition:

“Envy is a pain conceived at the prosperity of another.”
— Saint Basil the Great, Homily on Envy^[4]

This is what makes it monstrous: it reverses the order of the heart. Nature would have good bring joy and evil bring sorrow; envy reverses all, and is saddened by good. It makes the neighbor’s prosperity a personal wound. Saint Basil describes this paradox with cruel precision:

“Is a neighbor’s field fertile, is his house full of goods, does he lead a sweet and comfortable life! All these advantages sadden the envious and feed his sickness.” — Saint Basil the Great, Homily on Envy^[5]

The envious man is the one who can neither rejoice nor sympathize rightly: “he has not shared his joy, but shares his tears”^[6]. He weeps when another laughs, and is consoled only when another weeps. This is exactly the opposite of Saint Paul’s precept: “Be joyful with those who are joyful, weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15)^[7].

A sin that, it is said, gives no pleasure

There is one reason to fight envy that should suffice alone: it yields, it is said, nothing — not even guilty pleasure. All other capital sins offer at least a deceptive enjoyment — a dish, a body, revenge, domination, amassed gold. Envy offers only torment: at least, that is the constant observation of the spiritual tradition. It is an evil that nothing relieves, says Saint Basil, except the misfortune of the one envied, and which first turns against the one who bears it:

“Envy gnaws and consumes those it seizes, like rust eats iron.”
— Saint Basil the Great, Homily on Envy^[8]

The image is apt: rust does not come from outside, it arises from the metal itself and destroys it from within. Likewise, the envious person is devoured by the evil he nourishes. Saint Cyprian of Carthage, in his treatise On Jealousy and Envy, extends the observation: it is a persevering evil, a pain without end because its object — another’s happiness — never ceases to present itself to the gaze:

“It is a persevering evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God; to hate a happy man is a calamity without remedy.” — Saint Cyprian of Carthage, On Jealousy and Envy, ch. 9^[9] To combat envy is first and foremost to stop torturing yourself. No ascetic effort here is wasted: everything you subtract from envy is returned to you in peace.

“By the jealousy of the devil, death entered the world”

Tradition regards envy as a sin with dizzying origins. Before it was the sin of men, it was the sin of the fallen angel. The Book of Wisdom affirms:

“God created man for incorruption, making him in the image of his own identity; it was through the jealousy of the devil that death entered the world [...].” — Wisdom 2:23-24^[10]

Saint Cyprian comments: this angel, borne up by angelic majesty and the love of God, seeing man created in the image of God, “burst out in jealousy, with malicious envy”^[11]. Envy is therefore, at its root, the refusal that another be loved, exalted, fulfilled. This is why Cyprian calls it the source of all evil:

“Envy is the root of all evils, the source of calamities, the seedbed of offenses, the matter of faults.” — Saint Cyprian of Carthage, On Jealousy and Envy, ch. 6^[12]

To fight envy is thus not merely to polish a character flaw: it is to uproot from oneself the very sin by which the devil fell and caused man to fall. The stakes are graver than they seem.

The battle requires precise discernment, because the word “envy” is often used loosely. One might “envy” a friend’s house without malice; a child might be called “jealous.” None of these is envy in the sense of the capital sin. To avoid false guilt—or easy excuses—one must distinguish carefully.

Saint Thomas’s definition: sadness at another’s good

Saint Thomas Aquinas devotes question 36 of the Secunda Secundae to envy (invidia). His definition is surgically precise. Envy is not just any sadness at another’s good: it is sadness at that good as perceived to diminish our own excellence:

“The good of another is regarded as a personal evil because it results in diminishing our own glory and success. This is how envy grieves over the good of another.” — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 36, a. 1^[13]

The mechanism of envy is therefore comparison: the other rises, so I fall; he shines, so I am in the shadows; his success is not neutral, it devalues me. This is why we do not envy distant strangers or great men, but our close ones, our equals, our peers—those whose good directly reflects on our perception of our own rank. We envy the colleague, the brother, the neighbor, rarely the sovereign of a distant land.

Saint Thomas emphasizes a crucial point for the battle: envy, by its nature, is a grave sin because it is directly contrary to charity. Charity rejoices in the good of the neighbor; envy grieves over it. These are two exactly opposite movements of the heart^[14]. This does not mean every movement of envy is immediately mortal sin: an initial, involuntary movement of envy remains venial by imperfection. But its trajectory is mortal, because it aims ultimately to rejoice in the neighbor’s harm and grieve at his good.

Envy, jealousy, emulation: three things not to confuse

French often mixes three distinct realities:

• Envy (the capital vice) targets the good of another: it is sadness that another possesses a good I do not have. Its object is the happiness of the other, which it wishes to see disappear.
• Jealousy targets a good I already possess (or believe I possess) and fear losing: one is jealous of one’s honor, one’s spouse, one’s place. Jealousy is not always sinful—the Scriptures even speak of a “jealous God” (Ex 20:5), jealous for the love of His people. It becomes sin when it becomes possessive, suspicious, domineering.
• Emulation (or holy emulation, zelus in the good sense) is the desire to imitate the good seen in another, without wanting to take it away from them: it pushes me upward. Saint Paul encourages it: “Seek then ardently the greatest gifts” (1 Cor 12:31). It is a virtue, not a vice.

The decisive boundary lies here: do you want to rise toward the good you admire (emulation), or do you want the other to fall from it (envy)? The same sight—the success of a close one—can trigger either. Holy emulation says: “May I also become capable of this.” Envy says: “May he be deprived of it.”

The “zeal” that saves and the “zeal” that kills

Ancient spiritual language calls envy a bad zeal (zelus malus). Saint James contrasts the two in a famous formula:

“But if you have bitter jealousy and a spirit of rivalry in your hearts, do not boast, do not lie, do not go against the truth [...] For jealousy and rivalries lead to disorder and to every kind of evil practice.” — Epistle of Saint James 3:14,16^[15]

Good zeal burns for the glory of God and the good of neighbor; bad zeal burns against the good of neighbor. The first unites, the second divides. The whole battle consists in converting one into the other—to turn the energy of envy into the energy of emulation and charity.

One can only effectively combat a vice by attacking its root, not just its fruits. Envy does not arise from nowhere: it grows on a specific ground.

Pride, the Hidden Root

The Catechism points to the root of the word: “Envy often comes from pride”^[16]. It is pride that places the self at the center and makes every external good a threat: if I want to be first, everything that elevates another lowers me. The humble person has nothing to defend, and therefore nothing to envy. The Imitation of Christ expresses this in a perfect antithesis:

“The humble man enjoys unshakable peace; anger and envy trouble the heart of the proud.”
— The Imitation of Christ, Book I, ch. VII^[17]

This is why the fight against envy is inseparable from the fight against pride: as long as the self remains a throne to defend, the good of others will remain a threat. It is by descending from this throne — through humility — that envy is defused at its source.

Vain Glory and Constant Comparison

Envy feeds on vain glory: the need to be esteemed, noticed, preferred. Saint Paul links the two in one breath:

“Let us not seek vainglory; among us, no provocation, no envy of one another.” — Epistle to the Galatians 5:26^[18]

Where comparison reigns, envy finds its daily nourishment. A heart that constantly measures its worth against others will never find rest: there will always be someone somewhere more gifted, more loved, more successful. The battle therefore requires breaking free from comparison — not through indifference, but by ceasing to base one’s value on ranking.

Modernity, a School of Envy

We must say it honestly: our era cultivates envy like few before it. Advertising works by stirring desire for what others have; social networks continuously expose edited, staged, idealized lives, inviting comparison to an endless stream of apparent happiness. The philosopher will say no different than the moralist: the eye that constantly watches the lives of others ends up grieving its own. It is no coincidence that the spiritual tradition has made guarding the gaze — including the inner gaze toward others — one of the first remedies against envy (see below). Recognizing these mechanisms is not indulging in complaint: it is naming a terrain where the battle today must be fought with particular vigilance.

A capital vice is recognized by the fact that it gives rise to other sins: it is called “capital” (from caput, the head) because it is a head from which a lineage descends. Saint Gregory the Great, in the Moralia in Job, listed the daughters of envy, which Saint Thomas reprises in question 36:

“From envy arise hatred, slander, detraction, joy caused by the misfortune of one’s neighbor, and sorrow caused by their prosperity.”
— Saint Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, XXXI, 45, cited by Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 36, a. 4^[19]

This lineage shows why envy is so destructive to community life: it rots friendships, poisons families, divides communities. Where it reigns, trust quietly unravels. This is why the fight against envy is also a service rendered to fraternal charity: by cutting off the head, all the branches wither.

Sacred Scripture tells the story of salvation, but it is also a realistic treatise on envy. Almost all the great biblical tragedies are stories of envy. Meditating on them teaches us to recognize the vice at work—and to guard against it.

Cain and Abel: the first blood shed

Already on the fourth page of the Bible, envy kills. Cain sees that Abel’s offering is accepted but not his; instead of correcting himself, he grows dark. God Himself warns him that sin is “crouching at the door” (Gn 4:7), but envy prevails, and Cain kills his brother^[20]. Saint Cyprian sees in this the archetype of all envious fratricide:

“Here is the origin of the first hatreds between brothers, from the earliest days of the world: Cain the unjust was jealous of Abel the just and persecuted him. And the rage of envy went to the very end of the crime, with no regard for a brother’s love, nor the enormity of the crime, nor the fear of God, nor the punishment incurred.” — Saint Cyprian of Carthage, On Jealousy and Envy, ch. 5^[21]

Envy blinds: it makes one forget the bond of blood, the seriousness of evil, and the presence of God. This is its constant mark.

Joseph sold by his brothers

The patriarch Joseph, favored by his father and gifted with dreams, becomes the object of his brothers’ envy. The text is explicit: “his brothers were jealous of him [...]” (Gn 37:11). From jealousy arises a plot, then the sale into slavery. Deacon Stephen, at the threshold of his martyrdom, sums up the whole story in one word: “The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him to be taken to Egypt” (Acts 7:9)^[22]. But Joseph’s story also carries the remedy: once powerful, he does not take revenge but forgives and feeds those who sold him (Gn 45). Charity has the last word over envy.

Saul and David: envy that becomes obsession

King Saul’s case is the most instructive for the struggle because it shows the escalation. It all begins with a simple comparison sung by the women of Israel: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (1 Sam 18:7). From then on, the text says, “Saul looked at David with suspicion” (1 Sam 18:9)^[23]. That suspicious gaze — the “bad eye,” the biblical expression for envy — becomes hatred, then repeated attempts on David’s life. Saul destroys himself by pursuing the one he envies. Unchecked envy takes over one’s whole life: it transforms a king into an obsessive hunter.

The workers of the eleventh hour: “Is your eye evil?”

In the parable of the vineyard workers, those hired first murmur when they see the last ones receiving the same wage. The master answers with a question that unmasks envy by its true name:

“Am I not allowed to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” — Gospel according to Saint Matthew 20:15^[24]

The “evil eye” (in Greek, the bad eye) is the evangelical name for envy. This parable reveals a dreadful trait of the vice: it is saddened by the very goodness of God when it is shown to another. The envious cannot bear generosity when they are not the sole beneficiary. To fight envy is to learn to rejoice that God is good—including, and especially, toward others.

The elder brother of the prodigal son

The parable of the prodigal son ends with a figure of envy often forgotten: the elder brother. Though faithful, he refuses to enter into the joy of the feast given for his returning younger brother. His complaint is entirely in the comparison: “For so many years I have been in your service without ever transgressing your orders, and you never gave me a young goat to feast with my friends” (Lk 15:29)^[25]. The father then reveals the remedy: “You, my child, you are always with me, and everything that is mine is yours” (Lk 15:31). This is the spiritual key to the whole struggle: what belongs to the Father already belongs to me. There is nothing to envy in one who shares the Father’s house, for all His goods are common to me.

Christ Himself, “delivered out of jealousy”

The pinnacle of the gallery is also the most striking: Jesus was a victim of envy. The Gospels note this coldly about Pilate:

“For he knew that it was out of jealousy that Jesus had been handed over.” — Gospel according to Saint Matthew 27:18 (cf. Mark 15:10)^[26]

The pagan Pilate sees clearly where the religious leaders are blinded: it was envy of Christ’s holiness, authority, and success that armed His accusers. Meditating on this gives the struggle a new light: when we envy, we side with those who crucified the innocent; when we are envied, we are conformed to Christ delivered. Suffering envy thus becomes a path of likeness to Jesus.

Here comes the heart of this article: the concrete means. Envy is not uprooted by the mere will to “stop envying”—that would be like pulling a plant out by its leaves. It is fought through a series of gestures, attitudes, and graces that together turn the heart around. Here they are, from the most immediate to the deepest.

1. Name Envy and Confess It

The first means is the hardest: to recognize envy within oneself. Because it disguises itself. It presents as an objective judgment (“he doesn’t really deserve it”), as a legitimate criticism, or as “frankness.” The fight begins when one dares to call it by its name. A simple test: when this person succeeds, does it pinch my heart? When they fail, does it secretly relieve me? If yes, it is envy, no matter what disguise it wears.

Naming it allows one to confess it. Envy is a sin against charity; brought to the sacrament of confession, it receives the grace that dissolves it. Saying it aloud already breaks its power, for envy is a sin of the shadows: it does not survive the light.

2. Turn Away the Gaze from Others

Envy is born from the gaze cast on another to compare them to oneself. The remedy is therefore a certain guarding of the inner gaze: to stop scrutinizing others’ lives, their possessions, their successes, their reputation. The mystic Luisa Piccarreta received a very clear word on this point, which applies both to judgment and envy:

“The surest way to act rightly toward one’s neighbor is not to look at what he does. Because looking, thinking, and judging are the same thing. When you look at your neighbor, you cheat your own soul [...]”. — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 2, July 30, 1899^[27]

The remedy is not blindness, but refocusing: keeping the eyes fixed on God rather than on measuring others. “With eyes fixed on Me, judge no one”^[28], Jesus also said to Luisa. Practically: unsubscribe from what feeds comparison, avoid conversations that weigh others’ merits, refuse to dwell on what one lacks. One does not envy what one does not look at.

3. Charity That “Does Not Envy”

The decisive remedy is charity, because envy is exactly its opposite. Where envy grieves at the good of another, charity rejoices in it. Saint Paul places it at the head of his hymn:

“Love is patient; love is kind; love does not envy; it does not boast, it is not proud.” — First Letter to the Corinthians 13:4^[29]

Growing in charity is therefore the fundamental fight against envy (see How to Grow in Charity). And charity has a concrete exercise, accessible to all: forcing oneself, by an act of will, to rejoice in another’s good. “Be joyful with those who are joyful” (Rom 12:15) is not sentimental advice, it is a command that can be obeyed even when the heart resists. Sincerely congratulating, thanking God for the gift given to another, speaking well of the one one might be tempted to envy: these repeated acts gradually turn the heart around. Charity does not begin with feeling; it begins with the act, and the feeling follows.

4. Humility, Which Uproots the Root

Since envy “often comes from pride” (CCC § 2540), the fundamental fight passes through humility. The humble person does not compare because he does not defend a rank. Knowing his nothingness and that all comes from God, he has no glory to protect and therefore nothing to envy. This is what Jesus said to Luisa: “The more you annihilate yourself and learn to recognize your nothingness, the more my Humanity will communicate its virtues to you”^[30]. Humility is the ground where envy dies for lack of nourishment (see How to Grow in Humility).

5. Gratitude: Counting One’s Own Gifts

Envy is shortsighted: it only sees what is lacking, never what has been given. Its antidote is gratitude, which turns the gaze toward the gifts received. The envious person says: “He has it, and I don’t.” The grateful person says: “See all that I have received.” Making a concrete daily accounting of graces received—the life, the faith, loved ones, talents, even trials—starves envy by filling the heart. One does not envy for long when giving thanks (see How to Grow in Gratitude). Gratitude also heals comparison: each life has its own vocation, its own gifts, its own cross; comparing different callings makes no sense.

6. The Communion of Saints: The Good of Others Is Already Mine

Here is the deepest and most consoling remedy. In the communion of saints, through charity, the good of each belongs to all. What my brother possesses is not lost to me: through the bond of charity, it becomes mine. The Catechism states:

“Since all believers form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others [...] In this way one must believe that there is a communion of goods in the Church.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 947^[31]

This is the total reversal of the logic of envy. Envy rests on a premise: “What the other has, I do not have.” The communion of saints replies: “What the other has in charity, you also have, because you are one body.” If I truly rejoice in the gift given to my brother, that gift becomes my joy, therefore my good. Saint Paul said this of the Body: “If one member is honored, all share its joy” (1 Cor 12:26)^[32]. The Imitation draws the luminous conclusion:

“He who possesses true and perfect charity seeks nothing for himself [...] He envies no one, because he desires no special favor [...] and, despising all other goods, he seeks his happiness only in God.” — The Imitation of Christ, Book I, ch. XV^[33]

He who seeks his happiness in God alone can no longer envy, for God does not diminish when He gives Himself to another: He gives Himself fully to each one. The blessedness of another takes nothing away from mine; in Heaven, each elect rejoices in the glory of others as in his own. Meditating on this truth defuses envy at its root.

7. Pray for the one you envy, and do good to them

A radical means, recommended by spiritual masters: do the very good that envy would seek to prevent. Pray specifically for the person envied, speak well of them, render them service, publicly rejoice in their success. These acts go against the vice and break it by deeds. One cannot long hate the one for whom one prays daily; one cannot long envy the one one blesses. Saint Francis of Assisi goes further: to envy the brother through whom God acts is to attack God Himself:

“That is why he who is jealous of one of his brothers through whom the Lord speaks and does good commits a true blasphemy: his jealousy is directed against the Most High Himself, since every good word and every good deed comes from God alone.” — Saint Francis of Assisi, Admonitions, 8^[34]

Reverse the movement: instead of wanting the other to fall, actively desire that they rise—and work toward it. This is envy transformed into charity.

8. Prayer and the sacraments

None of these means hold without grace, which is drawn from prayer and the sacraments. Saint Gregory of Nyssa explicitly ranks prayer among the weapons against envy:

“Prayer is the safeguard of temperance, the correction of anger, the repression of vanity, the purification of resentment, the destruction of envy, the suppression of injustice, the correction of impiety.” — Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on the Lord’s Prayer, 1st homily^[35]

The mental prayer that keeps the heart turned toward God, the Eucharist that unites to the whole Body, the confession that purifies: these are the channels through which grace dislodges envy where mere willpower fails.

9. Living in the Divine Will: all is shared

The highest and final degree — according to what Jesus said to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (The Book of Heaven), a private revelation to be received with the discernment of the Church — is that of the Divine Will. Living in the Divine Will — not only doing what God wants, where two wills remain (mine, which I submit, and God’s, which I follow), but becoming one single will with His, as in Heaven: the soul that thus lives in the “Fiat,” the word by which God creates, no longer has anything of its own to defend, nor anything to envy, because it receives all things as gifts from the Father and makes the good of all creation its own, out of love. Where envy fences off — “mine,” “his” — life in the Divine Will puts all in common: the goods of all become mine, and mine become those of all. The very spring of envy — the other has what I do not — is dissolved there, because in the Divine Will there is no longer a jealous “mine,” but one shared good. This is the perfect fulfillment of the communion of saints, already begun on earth.

How can one tell that the battle bears fruit? By a visible transformation of the heart.

Peace regained

The first fruit is peace. Envy was a constant torment; its defeat brings rest. The Book of Proverbs expressed this in a vivid image:

“A peaceful heart is life for the body; passion is a cancer for the bones.” — Book of Proverbs 14:30^[36]

This “passion” — envy — eats away at man from within, down to the bones; deliverance restores the health of the soul. The heart ceases to gnaw itself; it breathes.

The joy of rejoicing with others

The sweetest fruit is an expanded joy. As long as envy reigned, the happiness of others was a suffering; once envy is overcome, that same happiness becomes a source of joy. The heart has multiplied its reasons to rejoice: it delights not only in its own goods but in all those of its brothers. This is the earthly foretaste of Heaven, where the glory of each makes the joy of all.

The freedom to admire and love

Finally, the freed heart regains the freedom to admire. It can praise without ulterior motives, congratulate without effort, love without calculation. It no longer needs to be first; it suffices that God be loved and that good grow, by whomever it may be. This is the freedom of the saints, who rejoiced more in the gifts of others than in their own. By conquering envy, one loses nothing: one gains the whole world as a gift, and enters, even on this earth, into the communion of goods that is the very life of Heaven.

• How to Grow in Charity — the virtue directly opposed to envy: “love does not envy” (1 Cor 13:4). The fundamental battle.
• How to Grow in Humility — humility uproots envy, which “often comes from pride” (CCC § 2540).
• How to Grow in Gratitude — gratitude heals the envious gaze by helping one count one’s own gifts.
• How to Grow in the Fight Against Pride — the root vice from which envy springs.
• How to Grow in the Fight Against Anger, Against Avarice, Against Gluttony, Against Lust, and Against Sloth — the other battles against the capital sins.
• How to Grow in Regular Confession and How to Grow in Prayer — sources of grace where envy dissolves.
• How to Grow in Gentleness and How to Grow in Spiritual Vigilance — gentleness toward brothers and guarding the first movements of the heart.