The following comes from a Jan. 23 story on AsiaNews.com.
Jealousy and envy create bitterness in those who subject to them and they generate gossip”. “Gossip divides the community, it destroys the community. They are the weapons of the devil”. These were the words of Pope Francis today during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, in which he asked to pray that these evils are not sown in Christian communities.
Vatican Radio reports that the Pope was reflecting on the passage of the Bible that tells of the victory of the Israelites over the Philistines thanks to the courage of the young David. The joy of victory soon turned to sadness and jealousy of King Saul, when faced with the women who praise David for killing Goliath. Thus, “the great victory begins to transform itself into a defeat in the heart of the King”. As was the case with Cain, the “worm of jealousy and envy” insinuates itself. And like Cain and Abel, the king decides to kill David. “This is what jealousy does to our hearts, it is an evil restlessness, which can not tolerate that a brother or sister has something that I have not .” Saul, “instead of praising God for this victory as the women of Israel did, prefers to withdraw into himself, grow bitter” and “boil his feelings in a broth of bitterness”.
“Jealousy leads to murder. Envy leads to murder. This was the very door, the door of envy, through which the devil entered the world. The Bible says: ‘Evil came into this world through the devil’s envy’. Jealousy and envy open the door to all sorts of evil. They also divide the community. When a Christian community suffers – some of its members – from envy, jealousy it becomes divided: one against the other. This is a powerful poison. It is the poison that we find on the first page of the Bible with Cain”.
In the heart of a person affected by jealousy and envy “two very clear things” happen. First, bitterness. “The envious person, the jealous person is a bitter person: they can not sing, they can not praise, they do not know what joy is, they are always looking at what the other person has that I have not’. And this leads to bitterness, bitterness that spreads over the whole community. These are sowers of bitterness. Secondly jealousy and envy lead to gossip. Because this person cannot stand that the other has something, the solution to the problem is to drag them down, so that I can be a littler higher up. And the tool to do this is gossip. If you look closely you will always find that behind every rumor lies jealousy and envy. Gossip divides the community, destroys the community. They are the devil’s weapons”.
“How many beautiful Christian communities” were doing quite well when, suddenly the worm of jealousy and envy insinuated itself into one of the members and, with this, sadness, resentment of hearts and gossip. “A person who is under the influence of envy and jealousy kills ,” as the apostle John says : “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer .” And “the envious , the jealous , begins to hate his brother”.
To read the original Story, click here.
Beautiful message. Its beautiful because it’s true.
Envy is one of the capital sins.
CCC: ” 2539 Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
St. Augustine saw envy as “the diabolical sin.” “From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity.”
CCC: ” 1866 Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great.
They are called “capital” because they engender other sins, other vices.
They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.”
Pope Francis has taken on the ‘ivory tower’ of Academentia – in the form of UND, who have shown more reverence for our Down Low POTUS and his Gaystapo Attacks on the Church – than the Church that is the foundation for Notre Dame – and the rest of Catholic Education, or at least ought to be:
“Essential in this regard is the uncompromising witness of Catholic universities to the Church’s moral teaching, and the defense of her freedom, precisely in and through her institutions, to uphold that teaching as authoritatively proclaimed by the magisterium of her pastors…” – Francis
See more at: https://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/2937/Pope-Tells-Notre-Dame-to-Defend-Preserve-Advance’-Catholic-Identity.aspx#sthash.89TP5GUP.dpuf
Pope Francis rocks!
“Francesco Rocks!” is the name of the religious gift shop established by Angela Alioto at the National Shrine of St Francis of Assisi, in San Francisco — until she was evicted by Bill McLaughlin and Msgr Tarantino, good buddies.
Now we find out WHY they were such good buddies, and why they chose to make an enemy of a lifelong San Francisco Catholic who built the Shrine with money she herself raised!!!!
https://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?id=9414122
The Holy Father would be horrified to see such an abuse of power, and such stuff going on even in the Shrine itself!!!!
Unfortunaately, this is not mere gossip, but the news we’ve been subjected to for months now here in North Beach
A person named Angela posted this on November 8 2013:
I’m happy for the people of St. Monica’s Church, but sad for the people here in San Francisco. The Porziuncola Nuova, a replica of the lovely chapel in Assisi that was built and paid for by generous people here in SF, is now closed because Monsignor James Tarantino and his close friend Bill McLaughlin, have thrown out the Knights of St. Francis and will not allow us to serve and pray in the chapel. They have even LOCKED the chapel to keep everyone out, even the innocenet tourists coming to visit!!!
I cannot understand why Monsignor Tarantino has the power to do this, when the Shrine of St. Francis was put under the control and direction of the Franciscans, not under HIS control. Pray for us that we will be allowed once again to continue our ministry of prayer and presence.
Quite often we envy someone only to find out that they have worse problems, stresses, responsibilities and crosses than we do.
I must say that I cannot necessarily agree with the Pope’s statements, at least the way they are translated or interpreted in English. Not all “gossip” is rooted in jealousy or envy as the Pope seems to suggest.
Gossip — Trivial talk, often involving personal or sensational rumors.
Rumor — A report of uncertain origin and truthfulness.
If I decide to blabber about a next door neighbor, who has a string of sleazy looking visitors, and go on to spread around the idea that she is either a drug attic or a slut, would this mean that I am jealous or envious of her? I hope not! It would still definitely put me in the category of gossip!
Hi Tracy I think that the Pope was speaking about the real meaning of gossip with the intentions that are rooted with jealousy and envy. What you pointed out isn’t gossip.
Thank you Abeca, I guess I have always had a tendency to over analyze things. This tendency sometimes made it hard for me to accept and choose one answer on those multiple choice exams in school!
Tracy If someone was honest, they may admit that even though that person was dressed inappropriately for church or for anytime, but deep down sometimes seeing that someone may have attractive legs or features that are exposed due to their immodesty, well it can provoke a sort of jealousy that is provoked that one may not understand that they have but at the same time, one knows that modesty was violated as well. But I would hope that as a Catholic Christian, one would also watch what comes out of ones mouth when speaking of another sinner. We must still be charitable, so as much as we may want to say “they are a slut or a drug attic”…since we do not know for sure, it’s best to tame our mouth about that but rather look at them with compassion because one may never know what got them to their present state of mind and if they are attending church, then perhaps befriending them and kindly teaching them about modesty, it may turn them around.
Its interesting what is in the eye of the beholder…..or how one may interpret things differently. There may be different situations and I’m sure our Pope can’t cover all instances in detail in just one homily but in this instance he was explaining one set of what gossip stems from. He said nothing untrue……
Tracy,
The case you described above is a matter for “WeTip”, and that is not gossip or slander!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Kenneth, I think the “WeTip” portion of my example would be to report the “string of sleazy looking visitors”. If I added that I think she is “either a drug attic or a slut”, this, in my understanding, would be gossip.
Mr Fisher is right. Tracy you are correct…if you thought that they were but wasn’t sure but proclaimed that they were a drug attic or a slut….and told one person that you through they were…then they told another saying that you said that they were but excluded the part that you thought….but turned out that they weren’t neither…well anyways…it just goes on and on…I’m sure coming from you would not be a jealousy issue but for someone else it may. Actions, thoughts, words hold power…when done in charity, it is not rooted from jealousy nor envy but when rooted in those sins, it leads to gossip. You may warn someone about something in charity but if someone didn’t like you and deep down their dislike of you came from jealousy, they may repeat what you said out of context just to discredit you or even hurt your good intentions. So their repeating out of context becomes gossip…then you can be sure it was done out of jealousy or envy….jealousy and envy, when deeply rooted can be very ugly things that many a times people do not ever acknowledge that they suffer with…if left unconfessed and unrepentant…..it can blind anyone more spiritually, it can lead towards narcissism and other deeply rooted sins…