Deadly sins

In the readings from yesterday and today we hear about the destructive effects of deadly sins: greed envy jealousy anger sloth. The brothers of Joseph are envious because he is the child of their fathers old age and their father loves him in a special way. They forget the blessings they received from God and from their father in their own childhood and as grown men they are jealous of their little brother. Their jealousy grows so strong that they hate him and they are willing to kill him and they sell him into slavery. They hate him so much they will not even greet him. The vineyard workers in yesterday's gospel are lazy and do not want to provide the fruit for their master and they are greedy and they want all the produce for themselves. The Pharisees in today's reading are angry and jealous because Jesus spends time with the tax collectors and sinners. The older brother in today's Gospel is angry and jealous because his father is kind to his sinful little brother when he comes home having wasted his inheritance. It all of these cases hardened hearts prevent these individuals from seeing and appreciating the blessings of God in their lives and in the lives of others. Their anger envy jealousy and greed harden their hearts and turn them away from God and others and inward to themselves. When in our families our schools our workplaces and our parishes we allow deadly sins to corrupt we are hardened in our hearts and we are separated from God. These deadly sins become wounds in our souls that the Evil One uses to further destroy us. In this Lenten season we need to purify our hearts of these deadly sins by looking outward two others needs and upward with gratitude for all God has given us. We need to stop comparing and being angry at what others have that we do not because when we do that we show tremendous ingratitude for the goodness of God and the lack of appreciation for His divine providence.