Have we ever wondered how much envy possesses us? And this is not an idle question that you can simply depart from.

In fact, envy is one of the most disguised passions, which is not so easy to elicit.

For example, we all love to clamor (and often quite rightly) about corrupt officials, bribetakers, etc. But is there only a sense of justice behind this outrage?

The events of recent years have shown that many ardent fighters against corruption, gaining power, often become even more corrupt themselves. It turns out that the indignation of thievish officials may be well motivated by a rather perverted sense of "justice": why is everything for him, and not for me? And this is true envy and greed.

Let's be honest: are there many of us who, having received power and access to wealth, would abstain from temptation and would not try to appropriate something, promote their relatives to high positions, etc.? And even there will be an excuse: "What am I better than others?", " Why they can do that, but I can’t?", «Maybe later I will share with the poor ones", etc.

In reality, corruption, bribery, the appropriation of public property is not something far away, happening somewhere "up there". All this can already be in our soul, and although this weed flourishes when the opportunity becomes possible, its sprouts are already in many of us.

Thus, behind the outwardly plausible demands of justice there is a banal envy, and it is low, hypocritical envy, and therefore more sinful.

Of course, this does not cancel the fight against corruption in the state, but it is important to always look closely into our own soul and fight with our own spiritual “corruption" in it. It’s important not to deceive yourself with a sense of false righteousness. Not to pull out the weeds of false morality and sanctimony so as to reveal hidden thickets of envy and greed.

If each of us with patience and humility will eradicate evil in ourselves, there will be less of it both in the country and throughout the world. The fight against any evil should always start from yourself.

Recorded by Natalia Goroshkova