November: Day 4: Venerable Ioannikios the Great

 

November: Day 4:
Venerable Ioannikios the Great

(The Sin of Envy)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Ioannikios, whose memory is celebrated today, lived in the second half of the 9th century A.D. and spent his early years in the royal service in a military rank. He was at first infected with the Iconoclast heresy, but, exposed by a clairvoyant monk who lived on Mount Olympus, he abandoned the heresy and all the vanity of the world, withdrew to this mountain, and here, through unremitting struggle with his passions, tireless labors, vigilance, and prayer, he attained holiness and became famous as a great ascetic and miracle worker. Many people came to the holy ascetic for edification and to ask him for his holy prayers and intercession before God; many spiritual bounties and blessings were poured out from the Saint. At the very beginning of his asceticism, having met two desert monks, the Venerable Ioannikios received from them, together with a prayerful blessing for the feat, a prophetic warning that towards the end of his life he would be tempted by envious people. This actually happened. On the same Olympus mountain, another ascetic by the name of Epiphanios was engaged in monastic exploits. Hearing about the growing glory of the Venerable Ioannikios, Epiphanios envied him and plotted to destroy him. Once, during a drought, when all the vegetation on the mountain had dried up and there were many dry trees around Ioannikios’ cell, Epiphanios set fire to the dry grass at the bottom of the mountain and the entire mountain quickly burst into flames. The Venerable Ioannikios owed his salvation to God alone: not only did he himself not suffer, but his cell miraculously remained unharmed amidst the flames. The meek and gentle Ioannikios, wanting to know the reason for Epiphanios' anger and to ask his forgiveness if he had sinned against him in any way, went to his ill-wisher. What power of malice is generated by envy! Seeing the Venerable Ioannikios, Epiphanios struck him with his staff, which had a sharp tip, wanting to kill him, but again he was put to shame by God, who saves the righteous from the malice of evil people.

II. You see, brethren, to what bitterness envy can lead a person! In truth, this passion is the most ungodly:

a) It is direct hostility to God, the source and giver of all good. By envying the well-being of his neighbor, a person gains nothing from this: he does not like the good itself, or the happiness of his neighbor; he does not want the spread of the Kingdom of God in the world, which consists in the establishment of good among people, therefore an envious person is an enemy of God Himself.

b) Envy is primarily a satanic sin. "By the envy of the devil, sin entered the world, and with it death" (Wisdom 2:24). The devil has been a murderer from time immemorial, and now makes his children those who, in envy of their neighbor’s good, are on the side of God’s enemies, since, according to the word of the Holy Apostle John, “whoever hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15) and he is like Cain, who was of the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because “his own deeds were evil, but his brother’s deeds were righteous” (v. 12). The Jewish elders became enemies of God and murderers of God also because of envy of Jesus Christ, Whose teaching, miracles and whole life disposed all the people to respect Him more than them. And how much evil has envy always done in the world! How many noble people, famous for their great deeds for the benefit of humanity, perished from it!

c) Envy is a fatal plague for society. Only where love reigns in social relations, which is “a bond of perfection” (Col. 3:14), where gifts and labors for the common good are supported by common respect and human envy is not given the opportunity to commit evil, only there is happiness and prosperity of society possible. “Where envy and strife are, there is disorder and every evil work” (James 3:16), says the Holy Apostle James.

d) We will cite here one very instructive story about the destructiveness of this vice.

Three travelers once found a valuable find on the road. It was necessary to divide it equally among all three; the find was so great that each person’s share would be quite significant. But the devil immediately appeared with his companions – the spirit of envy, deceit and greed. Having admired their find, the travelers sat down to rest in order to strengthen themselves with food, but each was not thinking about food, but about how to take possession of the treasure fpr themselves. One of them had to go to the nearest city to buy provisions for their dinner. One indeed went. The two who remained behind agreed to kill the third when he returned, in order to divide his share between themselves. Meanwhile, the one who had gone for provisions poisoned them with poison in the food, so that after the death of both comrades, the riches would remain for himself alone. When he returned, he was immediately killed by his companions, who, having in turn eaten the food he had brought, both died as well. Thus the precious find remained in place, waiting for other similar madmen, or a more worthy hand.

In a similar way the devil destroys even those people who would be terrified by the mere thought of killing their neighbor. The field of service to society is open to all, the acquisition of means to support themselves by honest labor is accessible to all. But the devil raises up in people the passion of love of power, love of glory and greed for wealth. And so the unfortunate, in some kind of blindness, strive for their goal, without regard for the means, push each other, knock others down and themselves fall, are destroyed and perish. And the goal to which the madmen strive, moves further and further away from them, sometimes it seems to approach them, is given into their hands, but suddenly, in one moment, it disappears from sight, leaving its seekers on the edge of the abyss, or at its very bottom. Sometimes some society is formed, plans a good enterprise, promising a sure benefit to everyone. But envy arises among the leaders of the society, a desire for one to get rich at the expense of others; and so the enterprise fails, or succeeds only temporarily and only half-heartedly, society is upset and its benefit goes to the wind, to someone else, about whom they had not previously thought, or whom they wanted to deceive and offend.

III. Let us, beloved brethren, guard our souls from envy, as from a fatal infection, painful for ourselves, contrary to God and harmful to the common good! Above all, let us "pursue love" (1 Cor. 14:1), which can be the only true antidote to envy, because “love does not envy... does not seek its own, does not think evil” (1 Cor. 13:4), therefore love is in everything opposed to envy and decisively drives it out of the human heart. Amen.

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.