Mar 5, 2018
Hello dear friends!
Well, based on the HUGE response to last week's podcast, I have a feeling I'm not the only one that struggles with vices! Thank you to all of you that wrote such encouraging and vulnerable emails and Facebook messages to me after listening to last week's podcast on Anger! Confronting the vices in our lives is sometimes painful, but always fruitful and I feel so blessed to be doing this good work with so many wonderful sisters in faith at my side.
This week we are moving onto what is, quite possibility, the ugliest vice: ENVY. Where anger can be just or at least justifiable, there is no good side to envy. Envy is evil.
Envy is sadness at another's good, or joy over another's suffering. Envy is the enemy to relationships and kills love.
Envy is the complete disorder of love. When envy grabs your heart you feel that someone else's honor is your disgrace, or someone else's gift is only a reminder of what you have been denied. And therefore, one of the chief causes of envy is selfishness. We are so consumed with our own pain that we can't see or think about anything other than that pain.
This episode is, once again, based on the wonderful book, Victory Over Vice by Venerable Fulton Sheen. In his chapter on Envy, Fulton Sheen pulls out two powerful lessons from the discourse Christ has with the 2 thieves crucified on either side of him shortly before His death.
From the first thief we learn that envy is the source of our wrong judgement and encourages us to be consumed with ourselves. We also learn that envy leads to damnation.
From the second thief, the "good thief" as we call him, we learn that the only way to overcome envy is to show pity. The good thief looks on Christ and has pity. Where we deserve this punishment, he says, he has done nothing. This pity leads to the mercy of God, and ultimately salvation when Jesus responds, "this day you will be with me in paradise."
In the podcast we dig deeper into each of these thoughts and discuss, in detail, how envy affect us specifically as Catholic Women. I talk specifically how we can fall into envy in our female relationships.
And often envy grows out of places where we have suffered real loss and pain. Infertility, loss of a baby, weight and health issues, broken relationships, death of loved ones or even lack of ability.
So, is it wrong to continue to hurt? Is it wrong to morn and weep over these losses?
No. That is not the sin of envy.
God often hands more suffering to those closest to Him. He never ask us to deny the pain or ignore it, or even "get over it".
He simply asks that we don't let our pain kill the love we feel for others. Instead, our suffering is actually an opportunity to love other more.
Our greatest example of this: Jesus on the Cross.
So much more goodness in the podcast. Have a listen and let me know what you think.
Hope you are having a blessed Lent!
Your sister in Christ,
Nancy