Posted on 11/04/2006 1:40:19 PM PST by Salvation
Note that I included "otherwise neutralized." While I do think we should pray for the conversion of even the most dangerous people, practical considerations of preventing their doing more harm have to happen at the same time.
Sometimes being "neutralized," imprisoned, for example, can open a door for conversion.
Indeed it can. We should all rejoice when such a conversion genuinely happens.
L
I think it's attention. One of the most common forms of envy is directed at someone else getting attention.
Professionals talk about attention deficit disorder (ADD), but we should remember that there are two forms. One is a deficiency in paying attention. The other is a deficiency in getting it. Our social structure in American society seems to be deficient in getting it in daily recommended doses. People do strange things to get it; especially when they notice someone else is.
Possible responses:
(1)It's gonna take more than a little relaxing to get ME to delight in any man's legs.
(2) Relax? This isn't tension, it's hypomania! (and that leads to:)
(3)Are you sure there wasn't some stirring goin' on 'roun' here?
Okay, enough foolishness. This is a good thread. I'm just pushing the Augustine through Dante through Mad Dawg view that envy is when I don't love you enough to be happy for you that all those nice things happened to you -- a deficiency of charity. My addition was that I also don't trust God to give me what I need, becuase the simeple articulation of envy, the "subjective principle of volition" has two parts -- or maybe it's that there's simple envy:"Hey how come HE gets to drink Balvenie ...," and there's the self-pitying component, "... while all I can afford is Pearl Beer?"
So intricate. I love it. That is not one I had thought of, but being the youngest of a large Catholic family one would have thought . . . :-). Yes. I think you make an excellent point. That would also answer to other envies, that would be motivated by reason of wanting attention. Very astute and insightful.
Why do I want attention? Au fond, I want to be affirmed as lovable and as loved.
Why do I envy you? You have something I wish I had? Yeah, but why am I not happy for you? Because I'm too preoccupied with our comparative status or somesuch to be happy for you. Or, put it another way, I don't love you enough to be happy for you. I see your gain as my loss, as though happiness were a zero-sum game.
So envy is a failure of Charity, Faith, and Hope, it seems to me.
What do I believe (in my better moments)? That God loves me so much that He will use, has used, and is using everything he has to get me just exactly what is right for me? What do I hope in? God's trustworthiness? With the confidence that OUGHT to come from that faith and hope, I should see that your success does not diminish me and therefore I should be free to rejoice in the good things that happen to you.
Maybe that's simple-minded, but it seems to me to be an explanation which accounts for all the intra-psychic phenomena AND which drives me to pray more and to use those means which God has kindly given us to grow closer to Him with His Son, in the Spirit. and in the communion of the Holy People and the Holy Things.
I like simple.
Mad Dawg wrote: So envy is a failure of Charity, Faith, and Hope, it seems to me.
Yes. Good point and I would add love as someone else mentioned earlier on.
Mad Dawg wrote: What do I believe (in my better moments)? That God loves me so much that He will use, has used, and is using everything he has to get me just exactly what is right for me?
Because he does.:-) Thank you for sharing this. Great reminders in there too.
Acting like you get it when you could care less is also an option.. Clubism, the groupie syndrome.. "Can't we all just get along", can be a gambit..
"You MUST be born again"-Jesus... else you're still a Monkey.. snapping branch's for effect and making noises..
I wish I had written that article. Why can't that article be my article?
Peace. Any fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Humility, Long-suffering, and Purity.
For all of you who are busy envying my good looks, just stop it now! /s
Envy can have some positive aspects to it as well. When I realize that I am envious about something that another has I don’t, I can either wallow in my anger and resentment about that, or I can resolve to amend my own behavior so as to achieve the thing desired. Sometimes I don’t reach that second stage until I’ve “wallowed around” in the first for awhile. Long enough to realize the pointlessness of it. Another outcome is the realization that perhaps I don’t NEED whatever it is it in the first place. In that respect acknowledged envy, dealt with in a healthy way (and with a hefty dose of God’s grace), can lead to a maturation of my values. Seems to me that UNacknowledged envy is the problem.
Thanks for posoting the seven capital sins. I don't think most Catholics are aware of them. And basically, all Christians should be aware of them too.
**Also in my case when I am envying another I am no longer grateful to God for what I have or have been given.**
So powerful a thought. Thanks.
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