The Book of Wisdom or The Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 Kommentar

Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." [Deuteronomy 32:15] Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and has become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world. [Wisdom 2:24] For thus it is written: "And it came to pass after certain days, that Cain brought of the fruits of the earth a sacrifice unto God; and Abel also brought of the firstlings of his sheep, and of the fat thereof. And God had respect to Abel and to his offerings, but Cain and his sacrifices He did not regard. And Cain was deeply grieved, and his countenance fell. And God said to Cain, Why are you grieved, and why is your countenance fallen? If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be at peace: your offering returns to yourself, and you shall again possess it. And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go into the field. And it came to pass, while they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." [Genesis 4:3-8] You see, brethren, how envy and jealousy led to the murder of a brother. Through envy, also, our father Jacob fled from the face of Esau his brother [Genesis 27:41-45]. Envy made Joseph be persecuted unto death, and to come into bondage. [Genesis 37:18-28] Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow-countryman, "Who made you a judge or a ruler over us? Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" [Exodus 2:14] On account of envy, Aaron and Miriam had to make their abode without the camp. [Numbers 12:14-15] Envy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive to Hades, through the sedition which they excited against God's servant Moses. [Numbers 16:33] Through envy, David not only underwent the hatred of foreigners, but was also persecuted by Saul king of Israel. [1 Samuel 21:10-15]

The devil, seeing that human beings were made in the image of God, fell through malicious envy into jealousy and, compelled by this envy, caused another to be lost, not hurling down another by the instinct of his jealousy before he himself was hurled down by his own jealousy. He was made a prisoner before he imprisoned another. He was lost before he caused another to be lost, when, compelled by envy, he took from human beings the grace of immortality that had been given to them. He himself had in fact first lost what he once was. Beloved brothers, how great is the evil into which the angel fell by which that sublime and splendid nobility was deceived and subverted, by which the deceiver himself was deceived! From then on envy raged throughout the earth, since the one who will perish through the devil’s spite pays homage to the master of perdition, and the one who is jealous imitates the devil, as it is written, “Death entered the world through the envy of the devil.” Consequently, “those who belong to his party imitate him.”

Christ descended and died and by his death freed us from death. Dying, he destroyed death. And you, brothers, know that death entered the world through the envy of the devil. Scripture says that “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the death of the living. He created all things that they might exist. But, by the devil’s envy, death entered the world.” Human beings would not have died at the hands of the devil, had it been a matter of being compelled by force. The devil did not have the power to force them, only the shrewdness to seduce them. Without your consent the devil would have remained impotent. It was your consent, O man, that led you to death. Born mortal from a mortal, we became mortal from the immortals that we were. By their origin in Adam all human beings are mortal. But Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God through whom all things were made, the only-begotten Son, equal to the Father, became mortal. “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”

From envy comes hatred, grumbling, disparagement, joy over the difficulties of one’s neighbor and affliction over his prosperity. O perverse progeny, which, if it penetrates the soul and begins to dominate it, destroys every bud of holiness. One who envies or hates kills no one before he kills himself. One who murmurs and disparages tears out his own roots before those of others. The one who exults in his neighbor’s difficulties and is tormented by his success strikes himself first with a foreign sword. This second branch of pride was first born when the one about whom it is written, “Death entered the world through the devil’s envy,” convinced Cain to shed his brother’s blood, moved by the hatred brought about by envy. But certainly Cain, through his envy, killed his own soul before he killed the other’s flesh. Indeed, it is written, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.”

Envy says, “In what way are you inferior to this one or that one? Why then aren’t you equal or superior to them? How many things are you capable of that they aren’t? So, they can be neither superior nor even equal to you.” Fraternal love, however, responds, “O mortal, if you think yourself better than others because of your virtues, you would be more secure in the lowest place than in the highest. The worst ruin always comes from the highest place. If, as you say, some are superior and others equal to you, what harm is it to you? How does it hurt you? As you envy the lofty position of others, be careful rather that you do not imitate him of whom it is written, ‘Death entered the world through the devil’s envy. Those who belong to his party imitate him.’ ”

Death is the sword of the devil. “Death entered the world through the devil’s envy.” This is the sword with which he killed the first man, and then the human race, until it was redeemed by Christ. When we sin, we fall under this sword. Christ, however, did not have this sword, because “he committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” He was not subject to original sin, because he was not born of sexual intercourse involving a man—a man who necessarily could not be without sin.

The man, who was formed by the initiative of divine action, was made lord of this earthly creation, so that in observance of the divine order he would respect only the will of him who, from nothing, had made him lord of all things. And from the beginning—not out of ignorance but corrupted by envy and wanting the creature to surpass what had been granted by God—he lost what nature had not given him, that is, grace, which had been granted him by the benevolence of the Creator. From then on, the transgressor, having received the sentence of death through the jealousy of the devil’s deception, passed this sentence on to the descendents who would originate from him in the future.

We must be convinced that the evil of envy is healed with more difficulty than the other vices. In fact, I would dare to say that if someone allows himself to be taken in only once by the plague of that poison, he will be without remedy. Envy is the scourge of which the prophet said figuratively, “See, I will send you poisonous snakes, against which no charm will work, and they will bite you.” Rightly, therefore, the bite of envy was compared by the prophet with the fatal poison of the basilisk, from the effect of which the author and initiator of all poisons himself perished and caused others to perish. In fact, even before he poured forth the poison of death on the man, whom he envied, that murderer had already ruined himself. Indeed, “death entered the world through the devil’s envy, and those who belong to him experience it.” Just as he who was first corrupted by the plague of that same evil was unable to accept the remedy of penitence and the provision for the cure, so also those who offer themselves to be struck by the same poisonous bites preclude any help from the divine enchanter.

Generation is properly attributed to the sexes, whereas imitation is always carried out by souls. This inclination of the soul to imitate, if it can, what it wants to, at times accuses a person and at times is to his credit, depending on the situation. Thus, in the good, imitation is spoken of regarding God, the angels and the apostles. Of God, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Of the angels, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Of the apostles, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” In evil, by contrast, people imitate the devil, as it is written, “Those who belong to him imitate him.” People also imitate other people: “Do not assume a melancholy air, like the hypocrites who disfigure their faces.” They imitate animals, as is implied in the warning, “Do not be like the horse or the mule, without intelligence.” By these words, both of persuasion and dissuasion, the inclination to imitation is indicated. Surely, if this were not possible, it would not be suggested to avoid it.

Believe with the firmest faith, not doubting in any way, that Christ, the Son of God, will come to judge the living and the dead. With his coming he will raise, glorify and, according to his promise, make equal to the holy angels those who in this life are freely justified by faith through the gift of his grace. To these same justified ones he gives perseverance until the end in the faith and love of holy mother church. He will lead them to the state in which they are perfectly good, in the measure in which God grants to each. After this they will no longer be able to lose that perfection in which the glory of the saints will differ, but the eternal life of all will be the same. The devil and his angels, however, Christ will send into the eternal fire, where they will never be free of the punishment prepared for them by the divine justice and with the devil godless and wicked people, of whom Scripture says, “Those who are of his party imitate him.” They have imitated him in evil actions and have not done adequate penance before the end of this life—those godless and wicked people who are destined to burn in the torment of the eternal flames, after reassuming their bodies.