No envejarás la muller de ton proysme
The Root of Envy
The author explains that coveting a neighbor's wife is a violation of the commandment to love one's neighbor and a failure to respect the dignity of God's creation.
Envy is desiring someone else's goods with sorrow; and for that reason, son, our Lord has given a commandment that no one envy his neighbor's wife, because sorrow in the soul's desire darkens the eyes of understanding.1 My son, every human being is a neighbor to every other by nature. And because there is an explicit commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, the God of glory commands that no man should lie with his neighbor's wife. In that commandment, another is signified: that you should love your neighbor and yourself.2 Son, to covet your neighbor's wife is to despise and stop loving your neighbor, and to hold his wife and her relatives in less esteem. And because God does not want anyone to undervalue a creature who is like him in nature, and wants a person to know that in his own wife there is the same thing that is in his neighbor's wife for giving carnal pleasure—for that reason God commands you not to covet your neighbor's wife.3
The Wisdom of Obedience
The author encourages the son to reflect on the consequences of sin and the humility required of a creature created by God.
Dear son, so that you'll be obedient to God's commandment and not be envious, remember the foulness you can grasp, and understand how hard it would be for you if someone desired your wife and pulled her away from the love of marriage—and consider whether, for such great foulness, it is fitting to lose the love and glory of God and suffer torment in everlasting fire. Son, if you were nobler than everything God has given you, it would follow that you were not a creature.4 So then, since you are a creature created from nothing, and would return to nothing if God withdrew his grace from you, for this reason, son, understand that God commands you not to be envious, to show that you are a creature created by our Lord God Jesus Christ.5
Read the original Latin
Enveja es desijar ab tristicia altruy bens; e per assó, fill, ha fet nostro Senyor manament que hom no age enveja de la muller de son proysme; car tristor en desirer d anima enllegeex los ulls denteniment.
Amable fill, tot hom es proysme a altre hom en natura humana; e car es manament esprés que hom am son proysme aytant com sí meteix, per assó, fill, lo Deu de gloria fa manament que nuyl home no conega la muller de son proysme: en lo qual manament es significat altre manament, so es a saber, que ages amor a ton proysme e a tu meteix.
Envejar, fill, la muller de son proysme, es menysprear e desamar son proysme e menys prear sa muller e sos parents de sa muller; e car Deus no vol que hom menys preu aquella criatura qui li es semblant en natura e vol que hom sapia que en sa muller ha aquella cosa metexa qui es en la muller de son proysme a donar delit carnal, per assó Deus te mana que tu no ages enveja de la muller de ton proysme.
Amable fill, per so que sies obedient al manament de Deu e no sies envejós, remembra t la sutzetat que pots entendre, e entin con greu te seria si hom te desijava ta muller et desordonava de la amor de matremoni, e pensa si per tan gran sutzetat es covinent cosa perdre lamor e la gloria de Deu e aver turment en foch perdurable.
Fill, si tu eres pus noble que tot so que Deus t a donat, seguir s ía que tu no fosses creatura. On, con tu síes creatura que sies creada de no re e que tornaries a no res si Deus ne levava sa gracia, per assó, fill, entin que Deus te fa manament que tu no sies envejós, a significar que tu est creatura creada per nostro Senyor Deu Jhesu Christ.
Notes
- 1 ↩Read as Catalan enlleigir (enlleigeix): disfigures/makes ugly; rendered 'darkens' for natural moral English with eyes of understanding.
- 2 ↩Old Catalan conèixer here is the biblical sense of carnal knowledge (cf. next section's delit carnal), not mere acquaintance; rendered 'lie with' for clear modern moral force.
- 3 ↩Medieval Catalan 'envejar' / 'enveja' here carries the Decalogue sense 'covet' (not mere social envy). 'Parents' means kinsfolk/relatives of the wife, not only parents.
- 4 ↩Source spacing "seguir s ía" and "t a donat" read as the expected clitics seguir-s'ía (it would follow) and t'ha donat (has given you).
- 5 ↩"no re" is taken as Old Catalan no-re / no-res, "nothing" (creatio ex nihilo), parallel to later "no res" in the same sentence.
Doctrine for Children — Opening companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit