Envy
Envy in simple terms means you want or desire what someone else has. It could be something material. It could be someone’s good fortune. It might be the praise another gets for a job well done where you thought you did better. I think of envy like a tapeworm. It gets inside you and starts to devour you from the inside out. It destroys relationships, divides families, and in the case of Cain and Abel leads to murder. It is one of the seven deadly sins and it grows insidiously slow until it is large enough to destroy us. Often in ways we cannot believe imaginable.
Jesus has been curing and healing perhaps hundreds of people. The deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk. Instead of rejoicing with the good fortune of people healed and forgiven the religious leaders take counsel among themselves on how best to destroy Jesus. They were envious of the miracles He did. And rather than acknowledge Him as God, plotted to have Him killed.
Let us pause a moment. Have your words killed someone? Have your eyes glared at someone so hard that they should have vaporized in front of you? Why? To what end? To make you look special. It does not work that way. Just like Cain when you have gone too far you are marked. Rather learn to humble yourself. Congratulate one another. Share in the successes of each other. Envy is destroyed by gratitude and generosity. Give these virtues out abundantly.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen