Envy is recognised as one of the 7 deadly sins because it gives birth to jealousy, which in turn becomes a seedbed for prejudice and maliciousness. We may assume that the people who witnessed Jesus' casting out of the dumb demon were a mixed crowd of curious onlookers as well as sceptics who could not rejoice in the fact that a man who had been rendered dumb, now finds his voice. It is likely that they were either Pharisees or religious leaders who have exorcists amongst themselves, prompting the Lord to ask, "Now if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts cast them out?" What was not, but needed to be exorcised was the demon called "envy" in them. So consumed by it, they only saw bad where there was good. Instead of being put down, Jesus offered them the sound parable of the strong and stronger man. The devil was the strong man who thought that his house was secured until God, the stronger man came along and disarmed him of his weapons of lies and deception. Accordingly, those who accuse Jesus of doing the devil's work end up being pawns of the devil themselves and will be thus judged.

Let us pray not to be envious of the good works of others. Instead, we pray to celebrate them, and rejoice that we are in the same camp — that of the Lord — standing with him to overcome envy and all the other sins of humankind.