Are you envious because I am generous? With these words, the wise landowner in the parable both warns us against a vice and encourages us to a virtue. We ought to avoid envy and cultivate generosity.

Envy may not seem such a serious sin, because it does not make the front pages like killing, stealing or lying. Nevertheless, it is one of the seven deadly sins. St. Augustine describes it as the diabolical sin – the sin of Satan himself. Out of envy of God’s generosity toward man, Satan rebelled. Early in Scripture we encounter the dangers of envy: out of envy Cain killed his brother Abel, and out of envy Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. Ultimately, envy prompted the leaders of Israel to hand our Lord over for crucifixion, as even Pontius Pilate perceived (cf. Mt 27:18; Mk 15:10).

So also in our Lord’s parable, the workers fall prey to envy. They resent the generous wages given to the other workers – that is, they resent the landowner’s generosity. At the heart of envy, therefore, is a resentment of God’s generosity, a sadness at someone else’s gifts, and a sense that God’s generosity toward someone else actually deprives us of something. The gravest form of envy, of course, is to resent another’s spiritual gifts or excellence.

Just as it causes the laborers to grumble against the landowner, so envy sets us against God. The envious man decides that God erred in His distribution of gifts, talents, and wealth. It should have been done some other way, he thinks. He, instead of God, becomes the judge of who should receive His gifts.

Just as it prompts the morning laborers to look askance at the late arrivals, so envy sets us against one another. The man who resents his neighbor’s gifts and blessings cannot possibly love his neighbor. Further, the envious man inevitably falls into gossip and hatred. He eventually becomes a slave, constantly comparing himself to others, forever worrying that somehow, somewhere, someone is receiving more than he.

Are you envious because I am generous? Christ reveals that envy is ultimately a hatred of God’s generosity. Therefore the solution to envy is to embrace and imitate that same generosity.

Generosity means, first of all, that we rejoice in the success and good fortune of others. The blessings that they receive reveal God’s goodness. If God has chosen to bless them in such a way, then we must leave aside our own opinions, pride, and feelings, and choose to rejoice with them and for them. Love for others demands that we be joyful when they receive something good.

Further, we ought to extend God’s generosity, which is an even harder task. We should desire that others become as great as possible — better than we are. And we should work towards that end. Envy desires others to remain mediocre and average at best. But generosity, coming from a true love of neighbor, seeks success and greatness for the other. Envy is a kind of spiritual sickness that restricts the heart so that it cannot rejoice in the good of others, much less give to them. Generosity, on the other hand, widens the heart to rejoice in our neighbor’s good and seek to increase it.