Envy's reach from Joseph to Christ and its remedy in distance

What wild beast do they not surpass in the savagery of their ways? What untamed creature do they not outdo in fierceness? Dogs become gentle when they are fed; lions grow tame when they are cared for; but envious people are made more savage by being cared for. What made the noble Joseph a slave? Was it not the envy of his brothers? And here the unreasonableness of the disease is truly worth admiring. For they feared the fulfillment of the dreams, and so they made their brother a slave—as if a slave could never be bowed down to. Yet if the dreams were true, what device could possibly prevent what had been foretold from coming to pass? And if the visions of the dreams were false, why do you envy a man who is deceived? As it turned out, their cleverness was overturned by God's providence. For by the very means they thought they were blocking the prediction, they were shown to be paving the way for its fulfillment. If he had not been sold, he would not have gone to Egypt; he would not have fallen into the plots of the licentious woman on account of his self-control; he would not have been thrown into prison; he would not have become acquainted with Pharaoh's servants; nor would he have interpreted the dreams, from which he received rule over Egypt and was bowed down to by his brothers when they came to him because of the famine.

Now turn your attention to the greatest envy, the one that arose over the greatest matters—the envy that came from the madness of the Jews against the Savior. Why was He envied? Because of His miracles. And what were His wonder-works? The salvation of those in need. The hungry were fed, and the One who fed them was attacked. The dead were raised, and the One who gave life was envied. Demons were driven out, and the One who commanded them was plotted against. Lepers were cleansed, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the blind received their sight—and the benefactor was hounded away. And in the end they handed over to death the One who granted life, they scourged the liberator of humanity, and they condemned the judge of the world. So the evils of envy ran their course through everything.

With this one weapon, from the foundation of the world to the consummation of the age, the destroyer of our life, the devil, wounds and casts down everyone—he who rejoices in our destruction, who fell through envy and casts us down with himself through the same passion. The man was wise, then, who did not even permit dining with an envious person; from the fellowship at dinner he was speaking about all the sharing of life together. For just as we are careful to store combustible material as far as possible from fire, so we must, as much as we can, keep our friendships away from the company of envious people, placing ourselves outside the arrows of envy. For there is no other way to be entangled with envy except by drawing near to it through intimacy. Since, according to Solomon's word, a man's envy comes from his companion (Ecclesiastes 4:4). And indeed this is how it is. A Scythian does not envy an Egyptian; each person envies his own countryman. And among his own countrymen, he does not envy those he does not know, but those most familiar to him. And among the familiar, his neighbors and fellow craftsmen and those otherwise close to him. And among these again, those of his own age, his relatives, and his brothers. In short, just as rust is a disease peculiar to grain, so envy is a sickness of friendship.