Envy consumes the eye. It is tainted sight. Invidia
means looking closely, too closely at the advantages of others. Wealth, beauty,
achievements, relationships, opportunities. It gives birth to resentment, hostility,
and hatred. While jealousy defends one’s own possessions, envy desires
another’s. It dwells in a limited world; it feels there is never enough; a
world of reaching for prizes, seeking for names. Aquinas calls envy “sorrow for
another’s good.”
Envy distorts
judgement. Where justice returns to everything that which belongs to it, envy
seeks to take it away; envy will suffer loss, so others may lose. The evil eye is
envy personified, withering crops, sickening children, fuelled by a sense of
grievance and inferiority. Envy is the seat of many crimes, from theft to
murder.
Integrity is seamless. Wholeness protects. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” That eye is the road to the heart: kindly, beneficent, generous, benevolent, loving. Light enables us to see reality as it is; darkness obscures. “If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” We know so little about others, even judging God: “Are you envious because I am generous?” God’s eye is true.
