evil eye - Turning to God's Word

In the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about a master who pays laborers the same wage whether they worked for the entire day or only a few hours at the end. This generosity causes those who worked the entire day to complain, leading the master in the Gospel According Matthew 20:15 (NABRE) to say: “Are you envious because I am generous?” This question is not at all a literal translation. A more literal translation is something like “Is your eye wicked because I am good?”

Additionally, it’s not generosity in God that causes the problem but rather goodness. This is a subtle but interesting choice. In material matters, God cannot be generous. For someone with an infinite amount, small and large are the same. From God’s point of view, this is not at all about the money but rather about fitting treatment of those who labor for him, and this is why the complaints of those first workers are so inappropriate. In squabbling over a relatively small amount of money, they question the very nature and goodness of God. This is the corruption of greed or envy. Jesus’ point is that in being overly concerned with material things, we can easily lose sight of what matters more.

you also may like our study of Saul, David & Solomon
The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King, a 28-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, provides an in-depth look at the First and Second Books of Samuel to learn how the lives of the monarchs Saul, David, and Solomon point ahead to the kingdom of heaven. The unified reign of King David is seen as a foreshadowing or type of the unity that is one of the four marks of the Church—the kingdom of God—established by Jesus Christ. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

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