“Sin is at the door of your heart. You must know how to conquer it.” In response to God’s warning Cain sneered. Envy issues forth in the looks of the Pharisees when Jesus asked whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. They would not answer just as Cain would not answer. Instead they watch as Jesus heals the man with dropsy. The truth is that the Pharisees who watched were filled with envy, a dropsy of the spirit. This is the heart of the violence affecting our society today. Let’s us turn to the Word of God and find out about this poison in the soul.
After the warning Cain plotted to express his envy of his brother in the one way Evil chooses to deal with goodness…kill it. Evil will not listen to the warning of God but devises ways to get rid of the object of one’s envy. As children we learned the saying “that jealous guys criticize.” The critic is one who seeks to kill the object of his criticism. It may come out in the vicious tongue or the fist that seeks to hurt or the gun that wishes to kill. As we follow envy through the pages of the Old Testament we turn from Cain to the person of Joseph.
Joseph was the delight of his father and the rest of the brothers knew it and when they heard the narrative of Joseph’s dreams they burned with envy and would wait for the right time to do what? When he came to them to check on the flock and their needs, he was grabbed and thrown into a pit. Their next desire was to kill him and send the bloody precious coat to Father Jacob announcing the death of Joseph at the paws of some beast. Ruben wished to free the boy when they spotted a group of Ishmaelites headed to Egypt and came upon the plan to sell Joseph into slavery. The envy of the brothers patterned itself upon their forefather, Cain. They got rid of their brother but God would turn their envious action into the means of fulfilling His Plan for the mission of Joseph which would set him over all the known world.
From Joseph we turn to a young shepherd boy who was the youngest of all the brothers but feared no lion or bear because he was protected by His God. This young man took on Goliath and took away the shame of Israel. He played the harp for Saul and cared for him in all his needs. All the good David did was undone when Saul heard the song that said that Saul killed his thousands but David his tens thousands. From that moment on envy entered and the desire to kill one who was innocent became Saul’s preoccupation. While David played the harp Saul took his spear and tied to slay the boy.
As Saul’s envy pushed him to seek out David for death, twice God delivered Saul into the hands of David but David would not harm a hair of Saul. David would not touch the Lord’s anointed. In the end this burning envy would bring about Saul’s own death. Goodness does not envy nor does it seek revenge. Just so is God’s love towards each of us.
Now consider the story of Moses, the meekest man in the world, he was envied by his own sister. She thought that she was a greater prophet than her brother and that she should guide the Israelites as a priestess. God responded to this envy and touched her with leprosy. It was only through her brother’s intercession that she was healed. Others that envied Moses and wishes to be the leaders, God simply opened the ground and swallowed them up.
We come to our Lord in the situation of the man sick with the dropsy, a disease which compels the person to overdo his thirst so that he becomes bloated within himself. The Jews watched Him carefully but Jesus counters their envy with the exposition of their natural response to an animal caught in a pit. Surely the man is more valuable than a cow or a horse but the Jew would care more for their animal because it is a means of profit for them. The man with dropsy stands silent but leaves full of gratitude that esus would show that a human soul is worth more than any animal. Envy is a disease that eats the heart out of a person and bloats him with pride.
Now what Jesus had to deal with then we have to deal with now, because Satan envies our humanity and its potential to be free of dropsy. The modern dropsy is the desire for power over our existence and the existence of others. Pride is pushed by envy and the power elite envy the innocence of our children coming forth from the wombs of mothers. That innocence which exemplifies God’s presence and His very nature is envied so deeply by Satan that Satan wants to kill every child. Abortion is the fruit of an envious devil who will never be able to see God again and cannot stand His presence in the babies.
This envy is physically present in the elections that are coming upon us. The demons have only one agenda item – kill children and Christians. If this were only a social phenomenon it would happen here and there but it is happening worldwide and that bespeaks the presence of the executioner of life itself. As Archbishop Vigano has remarked in a letter to President Trump that there is a spiritual battle being waged and we must increase our prayer to conquer the deceits of the devil and his minions.
Each of us is envied by the devil. We who are striving to be pleasing to God are public enemy number 1 to Lucifer and his cohorts. Today demons walk among us as zombie like people. Possession is taking the hearts of liberal leftists who seek to enslave the likes of Christians or to kill them outright. Yes, the battle is waging around the world and America is the final battle field. We must repent and pray for our Lord’s mercy. Our nation must have souls that will stand up and defend the faith. Recently, Jim Caviesel was interviewed by Gov. Mike Huckabe. His forceful declaration of the primacy of Jesus and the need to stand up for that belief is being presented in a new film entitled, Infidel. I would like to see this presentation for our times and how
we must fight for the salvation promised by our Lord.
Let go of all envy because you are chosen by God to conquer evil. Let go of any jealous bone in your body and replace all rancor with humble love. Turn to our Lady for the spirit that forgives even those who wish to kill you because they can’t touch your eternal soul. Death for the true Christian is the door to our eternal reward. Let us remember to seek first the kingdom of God, everything else is a waste of our time.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Voigt
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