Jealousy is most evil when one repines at another's spiritual good. It is then said to be a sin against the Holy Ghost. It is likewise called a capital sin because of the other vices it begets.
A: Jealousy is closely related to the sin of envy, which St. Thomas Aquinas described as sorrow over another's good. When we speak of jealousy, we are usually referring to the resentment we feel toward another person when they are blessed, or to our inordinate desire to have their blessing as our own.
According to the Catholic Church, there are seven mortal or cardinal sins: lust, gluttony, avarice (greed), sloth (laziness), anger, envy, and pride.
Envy—Envy, another capital sin, is sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself. Envy can lead to grave consequences and can harm neighbors. If envy leads to grave harm to a neighbor, it is surely a grave sin.
Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother." The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft.
Resistance to the known truth. Envy of a brother's spiritual good, i.e., of the increase of Divine grace in the world. Impenitence, i.e., the specific purpose of not repenting a sin.
It is still considered a mortal sin to miss Mass on a day of obligation without a good reason. The church has always believed that this obligation stems from the Ten Commandments given to Moses, one of which was to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Song of Solomon 8:6 KJV
Set me as a seal upon thine heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as the grave: The coals thereof are coals of fire, Which hath a most vehement flame.
Why does God say, “For I the Lord your God am a jealous God,” in Exodus 20:5? It's because jealousy can be good while envy is always bad. Jealousy is not wanting to share something or someone you possess or hope to possess, and envy is resentment toward the possessions of someone else.
The key difference is that with envy (unlike with jealousy) I do not merely want to possess for myself the good or excellence you have, I want to destroy it in you. Notice in the reading above that Saul wants to kill David. This is because he thinks that David's excellence makes him look less excellent, less great.
20:1-15), blasphemy against the Holy Spirit must be a final refusal to repent, or final impenitence. Thus the official stand of the Catholic Church's, following Augustine and a whole host of subsequent moral theologians, is that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is final impenitence.
A Mortal Sin
According to Church doctrine, tampering with the "male seed" was tantamount to murder. A common admonition on the subject at the time was "so many conceptions prevented, so many homicides." To interfere with God's will was a mortal sin and grounds for excommunication.
Mortal sins are also known as cardinal sins and are the more serious of the two types. These sins involve a grave matter committed with full knowledge and done freely and deliberately. Examples of mortal sins include murder, adultery, blasphemy, and idolatry.
But what's striking to me is the fact that the Biblical catalogue of sin is so very much a part of our history, and right there in the list of Galatians 5:19-21 and in the traditional Seven Deadly Sins, we find the sin of envy and jealousy.
At its root, jealousy is idolatry. We're placing our satisfaction in something that's not God, and we're saying he's not sufficient for us. Because of that, the only right response is to repent, turning from the poison of our envy and running to the throne room of grace.
As one evangelical dictionary puts it, envy is the “sin of jealousy over the blessings and achievements of others.” That's straightforward and it tells us that the words “envy” and “jealousy” are interchangeable.
Although many people consider “envy” and “jealousy” synonymous, they actually have distinct meanings. Envy is “the painful feeling of wanting what someone else has, like attributes or possessions.” If you're jealous, you feel “threatened, protective, or fearful of losing one's position or situation to someone else.”
Jealousy is said to be one of two types: reactive jealousy, which occurs at the awareness of an actual threat to the relationship, or suspicious jealousy, which can occur without any indications that the relationship is being threatened (Bringle & Buunk, 1991).
As writer and theologian Dorothy Sayers once wrote: "Envy is the great leveler: if it cannot level things up, it will level them down." At its worst, she said, envy is a destroyer — "rather than have anyone happier than itself, it will see us miserable together."
James 3:14-16 “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambitions exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
Philippians 2:3
“Don't do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves.” The Good News: Doing things out of jealousy or selfish reasons only takes us further away from God. A sincere and true heart is the way to go.
To say that a Mass “counts” implies that one meets an obligation by attending it. As a general rule, Catholics are obliged to attend Mass each Sunday. This is in fulfillment of the Second Commandment. Simply watching Mass on TV does not fulfill the obligation.
“Christian faith is expressed with three things: words, the heart, and the hands.” Canon law requires Catholics to go to church “on Sundays and other holy days of obligation” and to abstain from work or other business that would inhibit their worship on those days.
“There can be unavoidable circumstances that prevent our coming to Mass, but under normal circumstances, attending Mass on Sunday is a solemn and binding obligation. If we deliberately fail in this matter, it is a grave sin and we must go to confession before receiving communion again.