Legaspi: Envy and too much ambition?

Saturday, February 11, 2012

ENVY has been listed by the Catholic Church as one of the 7 Cardinal Sins. It is an ill-feeling against one’s success or one’s gain. Everyone of us, as sinners, are infected by such sin. But the degree of the infection differs and depends upon one’s foundation.

Usually this is the “fault line” that would create “quakes” and “disasters” in friendships and relationships. This is the act that will really make one suffer.

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Ambition, on the other hand, is a motivational factor that would make one strive to go up the professional ladder and to the point of stepping down at others only to attain a higher step. Once these two things collide, it will be the destruction of everything.

I have a very close friend whom I have really trusted for the past years. He had been one of those who gives me advises as to making decisions and in my journey through life. I had considered him as a big brother and a confidante in all things. Even in my work, I usually confide even sensitive issues to this person.

Lately, I went up the professional ladder, leaving my good friend a step or two behind. While I was in a higher position, I tried to bring him and his wife up and surely they were a step higher now.

I had to assume many responsibilities and he has to stay in his position while I had to do my duties. I did not recognize that this promotion hit him hard and that he tried to do lots of things at my back, discrediting my works and programs and even my personal life.

He tried to cling also to a common friend who had been promoted to a higher position. He discussed the sensitive issues that I have trustfully shared with him in the past. He even tried to paint me colors just to move on and catch up with me in the ladder.

What saddens me is to lose a good friend because of envy and high ambition. He was the one who told me never to be envious of others, for it will only hurt you and not the other party. Now, he is really hurt.

I learned lately that this friend tried to make up stories against me and my wife. It is simply ok for I had not heard it directly from him and I won’t just simply believe from rumors. He was also the one who would pull me back on the ground when he thinks that I am already full of air but today, he is the one who is tricking to put a needle for me to stumble.

It’s a good thing that there are people whom we do not even consider as real and good friends but they try to warn us of our “supposed friends”.
I pity my friend, for he is now in his final stretch but still his ambitions are not attained; thus, he throws stones at people whom he thinks are going faster than his phase.

I pity my good friend and his wife for they have lots of excess baggages, back subjects and unfulfilled dreams in their lifetime and they have no more time to recover such. My prayers are with them and his good friend. May they feast on whatever they think is right for them.

There are ambition and envy brewing inside each one of us. They will surely bring us nowhere but down. When these two combine, it will be the start of a rotten life. No matter what one does, he is already bent on the trash. This is what I fear that is going to happen to my dear friends and their good friend. Life becomes misery and trash to them.

My only advice to them is life is short and is getting shorter. Make the most out of it. Live it as your own and do not compare.

My condolences to the family of Rodcel Benitez. He was my student and a trusted one in the department during his college days. Your deeds will always be remembered.

Sts. Lorenzo Ruiz and Ezekiel Moreno; Blessed Pedro Calungsod and Pope John Paul II; and Sir Faraon Lopez, pray for us.