Envy and the Deception of Satan

A most wicked demand. He who seeks the worse thing finds a thought opposing him, bringing a struggle he is likely to face; a craftsman is found in wrestling against error, but in all your spiritual labors, if one should be lacking, the one who has seized this labor enters in its place.ember to preserve the heart by the mindfulness of labors, lest the forgetfulness of the superior care, having seized this, deliver you to the captivity of the thoughts; for the forgetfulness of captivity leaps upon evil, so that, once the mind is stolen by it, this evil might enter in ready, the mind being stolen from God and being distanced from memory, and through external sensations sinning indifferently; for such a one, hearing and tongue, is unable to instruct, because the filter of labors has been removed from the outside. He who loves to hear the one who slanders the fearful, two work with two complicit spirits; for the evil-minded person of the accusation becomes a partner, and they speak to one another for the sorrow of the heart.

Chapter 17. Seal up your ears from slanders, so that you may not sin double with them, oneself subjecting oneself to a terrible passion, and not ceasing to sting them with the tongue. The one who loves mockery plunders the soul of the superior ones, breaking through with a sharp hearing to the devils; but he who flees from the insulting tongue of the neighbor and avoids his own insults, providing pleasant ears to the mocker, ignores the venom of the beast to the ears. Let him not taste this bitter retaliation of that which is yours, lest perhaps you also mix such a thing with another; do not be deceived by slanders regarding that which is yours, so that, having suffered a passion, you may not serve through many sufferings; for finding one place of passion among the many in you, it contributes other things to the same pile; then the leader is enslaved by a multitude of evils, when, being joined to passion, he unzips the labors. He who, testing the thoughts of others, searches for them, does not search for his own actions in practice; do not mock the one passing away as if he lived carelessly, so that you may not become a bitter judge of the dead as if out of habit of the living. Do not allow those who stumble to exalt you with a vainglorious thought as a judge, but attend to yourself with a sober thought, and be a tester of your own actions. Groan, stumbling one, and do not blow while standing upright, being unmindful; do not magnify yourself, so that you may not clothe yourself in evil as if it were an ornament. For some, unable to be known out of reverence, hurried, even if...

So that evil may be known in this way: others, having increased in envy, use accusations as grazing animals, and they belittle those standing firm in virtues. Some, gossiping about trivialities around you, shroud a noble life, not so that they might mourn trivial faults with toil, but so that they might shadow the reputations of the vainglorious.

But do not be beautified by the one deceiving you, nor be delighted by being deceived; for if he touches upon the serious merely for a name, he works not for God, but for men. Do not speak with boldness to the one living only for appearance, even if he sends a great name for this. He is a friend for the sake of a face, and time becomes his accuser.

Chapter 18. Beware of acquiring a friend to spy, so that you may find a cover for your own faults, and hide the envy existing in you rather than the envier. When your own friend, being diminished by your praises regarding your labors, turns toward envy, as if to hurl words of vainglory against your labors to those around you, so that he might shadow the glory running about you with his own limbs, then do not be moved by his malice, so that you may not siphon a bitter venom into your soul. For this is the work of Satan, to set him on fire with envy and to consume you with bitterness.

Rather let us humble ourselves, and let us lead such people in honor by enduring them, and by the table the thought made savage by zeal. Do not reproach the friend with zeal as if from another person, so that, by reproaching him as if from a different mouth, you might make yourself appear innocent and exalt yourself as blameless. For this is a transformation of Satan, of one seemingly reproaching the Most High from a face, so that, by reproaching his own envy toward God as if from another mouth, he himself is considered faultless.

Do not desire to have the brother as a slave, seeking to catch the fault of this one, so that you may not be found a fellow-worker with Satan. He who has faulted, and says others are faulting, or says 'let him not fault if he is faulting,' does so so that he may not be the only one fallen into evil, which is, first of all, from the fall of the devil, this also a work. But let him be one repenting of the strange works he has done; recognizing the lamentation of sorrow over them, he shall also embrace the primary stillness of labors, which appears to him as the manifold contemplation of virtues. Let him who is still in tongue be manly according to the thoughts; for the courage of the soul is not...