ENVY. — I. Concept.
Envy (from the Latin *invidia*) is one of the seven capital sins, which arise from the concupiscence inflamed in human nature by reason of original sin. Like all capital vices, it is more a disordered and therefore evil tendency than a sin *per se*; yet it is called a sin because it leads to sin, and a capital sin because it is the source or root of many other vices.
Envy is at once a passion and a vice. As a passion, it is a kind of deep sorrow that is felt in the presence of another’s good. This passion is nothing other than the perversion of a useful sentiment, implanted by God Himself in human nature, namely, emulation—a laudable feeling that urges one to imitate, to equal, and even to surpass, with the help of divine grace, the virtues of one’s neighbor. As a capital vice, envy is a kind of spiritual pain occasioned by the good of another, regarded as an affront to our pretended superiority and hence as an injustice done to ourselves. It is often accompanied by the desire to see the neighbor deprived of the good that dims our own glory. It is a vice that springs from pride, which cannot endure either superiors or rivals. The objects of envy are chiefly brilliant gifts, wealth, success, honors; yet in many persons envy extends even to more solid and perfect qualities, even to virtue itself, and even to the person who possesses II. These are the worst forms of envy. Envy is therefore a hateful egoism that seeks a way to harm one’s neighbor, in contrast to charity, which rejoices in the happiness of others.
When grave matter is present, envy is by its nature a mortal sin, because it directly opposes the virtue of charity, which bids each person to rejoice in every grace and advantage that God bestows upon his neighbor. To envy another’s spiritual goods is a most grievous sin (Sum. theol., 2a-2ae, q. 36, a. 4, ad 2), one of the six sins against the Holy Spirit, deemed irremissible inasmuch as they are seldom followed by repentance.
All this holds true when the motions of envy are deliberately and fully adverted to. When, instead, they