In the time of envy we sin against God's Patience

In the time of envy we sin against God’s Patience

If we wonder about how God sees all of us when our desire is to have more than our neighbor can become a test of jealousy, contempt, and both led by pride.  

In the garden, where Adam and Eve dwelt, there was never a quest for more than they already had.  In the creation of our world God planted fruit for life and the ease of living care-free.  “Then the Lord planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed.  Out of the ground the Lord made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garde and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.”  (Gn 2: 8 - 9).  

Already the very prominence of God’s generosity became apparent and Adam could have everything he needed for a secure and plentiful life.  However, there was a particle that existed that was not intended for him to partake of.   He had enough and needed no more, as it belonged to someone else; namely the Lord who is the owner of the garden.

Herein we see the sin of envy begins to grow within the human desire of something he regards with his salacious drooling and in his mind would love to eat from this tree that was tempting.  However, he waited with the strength to avoid this tree.  

The Lord God said: “It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make a suitable partner for him.”  So the Lord God formed out of the ground various animals and various birds of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them;  whatever the man called each of them would be its name.  The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.  So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.  When he brought her to the man, the man said:  “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called woman,” for out of her man this one has been taken.”  (Gn 2: 18 - 23).  .

Now the desire of the man to taste the fruit from the tree he was not to seek would become the fall of man and all going forth throughout human history.  

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made.  The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”  The woman answered the serpent:  “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, it is only from the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, “You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.”  But the serpent  said to the woman:  “You certainly will not die!  No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know well what is good and what is bad.”  The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for wisdom.  So she took some of its fruit and ate it:  and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.  (Gn 3: 1 - 7).

Here we can see how quickly each of us can be tempted to sin, in spite of the background any of us may have received.   A desire to have just a moment of pleasure that satisfies the salaciousness of our appetites, the covering over the difference between right and wrong, and for just a moment sink our teeth into the fruit that is not good, but will attack us to come back time after time.  

Is this then an envious entity since it is just our own desire to have what everyone is enjoying?  Yes, because the pronoun that identifies the majority of human will is so rampant that to live without succumbing to the same evil will place us outside of the central theme of society.  Each time we surrender to the envious attraction of pleasure, in any identity, we are exactly what Adam and Eve did as well.  Today, the Woke movement and all the social media promoting a path without rules of morality are also eliminating God and the promise of eternal life with him. 

The fall of man is not just a narrative to describe a moral teaching from Genesis, it is a mirror of each man and woman who look beyond God and see a fulfillment of sexual and greed activities that are pleasing to the eye.  Once our eyes are opened to what is not in God’s will for his creatures will only blind our senses of finding the forgiveness that is always beside us to grasp ahold of.   

Ralph B. Hathaway