On Envy and Malice

-St. Basil the Great

The grievous circumstances of the present time cause us no small sorrow: all the churches are shaken, every soul is troubled. Everyone has boldly opened their mouth against their fellow-servants. Falsehood is uttered without fear, truth has been hidden; the slandered are condemned without trial, slanderers are believed without examination. It is long now since I myself, wounded by slanders, have endured the blows of condemnation, contenting myself with this alone: that I have as witness of the falsehoods the Lord who knows all secrets. But since many have already taken our silence as confirmation of the slanders and have supposed that we are silent not out of long-suffering but because we cannot open our mouth against the truth, therefore I beseech your love in Christ: do not accept utterly as true the slanders poured out against me from one side. For, as it is written, “Does our law judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he does?” (John 7:51). Demand from us an answer concerning the faults attributed to us. If you find truth with us, give no place to falsehood; but if you perceive us failing in reply, then believe our slanderers as speaking the truth. For it is impossible to stop their mouths with words; nay, it is far more likely that our answers will only irritate them further and cause them to devise yet crueller assaults against us. It is well known that for a prudent judge the matter itself is sufficient to reveal the truth; even if we were entirely silent about it, you could still see the truth from the deeds themselves. In this case imitate Alexander, who, as the story goes, when he heard slanders against one of his friends, stretched out one ear to the slanderer and firmly closed the other with his hand, thereby making it clear that he who intends to judge rightly must not rely entirely on those who speak first, but must keep half his hearing for the defence of the one slandered.

It is usual for such worthless flatterers to cling to great authorities: men who, having no excellence of their own by which they might be known, seek to make themselves known through the misfortunes of others. As vultures fly over many gardens and many sweetly-scented, brightly-flowering places yet swoop down upon carrion, or as flies pass over healthy flesh and hasten to sores, so the envious pay no heed to worldly splendour and glory but attack what is despised. Therefore right-minded judges should follow the example of that same Alexander. When this ruler received a letter in which one of his physicians was slandered as though plotting against him, he not only refused to believe the slanderer but drank the medicine while reading the letter. From this it is clear that he who pours out reproaches upon his neighbour without confirming his words with any proof brings ill repute upon himself by his own empty talk. For how else should one fittingly name a slanderer than with the very name his deed deserves?

Let him who reproaches his neighbour take care not to resemble the devil in this, but rather let him be a brother who admonishes in love and by reproof brings to amendment. And you, do not stretch out your ears to reproaches, but be judges of the truth, so that those reproved may not remain unamended when their fault has not been proved to them. For in this way they too will come to recognise their transgression, and you, having exposed them, will be justified before the Lord as those who shun fellowship with sinners; and those who exposed them will receive a reward, for they have made manifest a hidden sin. But if you condemn them before they are convicted, they will suffer no harm except the loss of what is most precious to us all—your love—while you yourselves will suffer the same loss by being deprived of them, and beyond this you will be found opposing the Gospel, which says: “Does our law judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he does?” (John 7:51). No, most honoured brethren, do not fall into this; do not disregard this entreaty of ours, lest there overtake us the fearful saying of the Lord: “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt 24:12).

As the moth corrupts wheat, so envy corrupts friendship. As much as envy is alien to goodness, so much is it proper to the devil. Rust destroys iron, and envy destroys the soul in which it dwells. Vipers are born by eating through the womb that bore them; in the same way envy devours the soul in which it is born. The envious man seeks the sole consolation for his malice: to see one of those he envies fallen. The whole aim of envy is to see the one envied brought low from prosperity to poverty, from happiness to misery. Then the envious man is reconciled and becomes a friend—when he sees the other in tears; he rejoices not with the joyful but weeps with the weeping, lamenting the change of fortune not out of love or compassion for the former good estate, but to make the misfortune heavier for the fallen one.

Such was Saul: the many benefactions of David gave him occasion to drive David out, and he sought to pierce his benefactor with a spear. Though through David he and his whole army had been saved from the enemy and delivered from the shame of Goliath, he attempted either to kill David with his own hand or to destroy him by treachery. Then, having made him a fugitive, he did not even then abandon his envy but at last raised war against him, seeking him through the wilderness with three thousand chosen men. Even when Saul himself was captured and ready to be slain by his enemy, and was again spared by the righteous man who would not lay hand upon him, he was not softened by this benefaction but gathered an army once more and pursued him again, until a second time he was captured by David in the cave—by which David made his own virtue shine the brighter and Saul’s malice the more manifest.

In the same way the brothers acted toward Joseph, not knowing what they were doing. For if Joseph’s dream was true, how could what was foretold not come to pass? And if the visions in dreams were false, why envy one who would receive nothing? Truly hatred is an evil proper to the devil, which neither word can express nor remedy cure. He who suffers from a disease of the head can describe to the physician the ailment of his head; but what can one sick with envy say? “The good things of my brother grieve me”? That is the truth, but everyone would be ashamed to utter it. Why then are you grieved? Because of your own misfortune, or because of another’s good fortune? Undoubtedly envy is an evil proper to the devil.

As an arrow shot with force, when it strikes something hard and firm, rebounds upon the archer, so the impulses of envy, when they do no harm at all to the one envied, turn back to harm the envier himself. Envy contains within itself many evils, but one of them is useful: that it is an evil for its own perpetrator and eats away his heart more than rust eats iron. The envious man does little harm to the one he envies, but consumes himself with grief and sighing at his neighbour’s prosperity—which prosperity he does not diminish, while he only wears himself out with envy.

Yet just as we take care to keep combustible material as far as possible from fire, so we must strive no less to keep ourselves altogether away from the company of the envious, and thereby remain safe from the arrows of envy. We tame dogs by feeding them; but when we show kindness to the envious, we make them still fiercer. For he does not rejoice in the kindness shown him but grieves at the abundance others possess, that they have enough wealth to supply his wants.

Lynxes have a natural fury to leap at human eyes. Therefore, if anyone wishes to mock the frenzy of this beast, he shows it a picture of a man on paper; and the lynx, in its great rage, not distinguishing the drawing, tears it as though it were a man, thus displaying its hatred of mankind. So too the devil displays his hatred toward God upon God’s image, since he cannot touch God Himself.

Therefore, O man, I desire that you flee imitation of the malicious, seeing in a small creature great cunning and craft, such as this: The crab desires the flesh of the oyster, yet it is hard for him to catch this prey because of the oyster’s strong protection in its shell. Nature itself has fortified its tender flesh with a strong rampart—whence the creature is called “shell-fish.” And since the two halves of the shell, tightly joined together, protect the oyster, the crab’s claws are wholly ineffective. What then does he do? When he sees the oyster basking pleasantly in calm places and opening its shell to the sun’s rays, he secretly slips a pebble inside, preventing it from closing; and thus what his strength could not achieve he obtains by cunning and trickery. This is the cunning of irrational and speechless creatures.

Exactly the same is the man who, while maintaining flattering intercourse with his brother, attacks his neighbour in time of misfortune and takes pleasure in another’s calamities.

Nor can I pass over in silence the deceit and craft of the cuttlefish (polypus), which clings to every rock and takes on its colour. Many fish therefore swim fearlessly up to it as though to a stone and become ready prey for this treacherous beast. Such are the ways of those who always fawn upon those in power, adapting themselves to every circumstance, never remaining in the same disposition of mind but constantly taking on different appearances and changing their thoughts to please each person. From such men it is hard both to escape and to guard oneself against harm, because under the guise of friendship their cunning malice lies deeply hidden in the heart. They nourish hatred within while outwardly showing love, like submerged rocks in the sea which, being hidden beneath the water, cause unforeseen harm to the unwary.

Therefore one must not be silent in the face of slanders—not in order to defend oneself by refuting them, but to prevent falsehood from spreading and to keep the deceived from suffering harm. For the slanderer inflicts harm on three at once: first on the one slandered, second on the one before whom he slanders, and third, finally, on himself. Thus, when we know that to slander and revile anyone with an unrestrained tongue and a foolish mind is the work of malicious and quarrelsome men, whereas on the contrary to strive with all diligence to refute falsehood with proofs when one is regarded as evil because of slanders laid against him—this is the work of chaste men who, while caring well for themselves, count the safety of many as a great thing.

Let us therefore flee the malice of the former and emulate the virtue of the latter, in hope of attaining the good things to come in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belong glory and power, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.