Joseph’s dreams: he is sold by his brethren, and carried into Egypt.
“Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours.” (Genesis 37:3)
It is natural to love virtue; to hold fast to what is good.
“But we cannot take from parents their freedom to love the more those children whom they believe to be the more deserving, nor ought we to cut off the sons from their eager desire to be the more pleasing. To be sure, Jacob loved the more that son in whom he foresaw the greater marks of virtue; thus he would not appear to have shown preference so much as father to son but rather as prophet to a sacred sign. And Jacob was right to make for his son a tunic of many colors, to indicate by it that Joseph was to be preferred to his brothers with his clothing of manifold virtues.” -St. Ambrose
“And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.” (Genesis 37:4)
God favors the virtuous. Envy is sinful and leads to hatred.
“Envy is a terrible passion, you see, and when it affects the soul, it does not leave it before bringing it to an extremely sorry state. [It damages] the soul that gives it birth and affects the object of its envy in the opposite way to that intended, rendering him more conspicuous, more esteemed, more famous—which in turn proves another severe blow to the envious person. Notice at any rate in this instance how this remarkable man is depicted as ignorant of what was going on and conversing cheerfully in great simplicity with them as his brothers who had caused the same birth pangs as he…. They for their part were in the grip of the passion of envy and were thus brought to hate him.” -St. John Chrysostom
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraphs 2538 and 2539:
The tenth commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart. “Through the devil’s envy death entered the world.” Envy is a capital sin. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin.
St. Augustine saw envy as “the diabolical sin.” “From envy are born hatred, extraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity.”
Discussion: What can we do to avoid the capital sin of envy and it growing within our hearts?
Fr. Mike Schmitz advises on avoiding envy: We need to turn back to God when we are having feelings of jealousy, envy or resentment.
The cure to resentment is gratitude.
Life is a gift and can not be considered owed to me. It is merely something to be received with gratitude.
“I am ready: he said to him: Go, and see if all things be well with thy brethren, and the cattle: and bring me word again what is doing. So being sent from the vale of Hebron, he came to Sichem.” (Genesis 37:14)
The Son of God was sent by God to come to earth to be loved by just men and denied by unbelievers. While sinners turn away from God, the just run to meet the Lord.
“Therefore the patriarch did not refuse to believe in a dream so mighty, for in a twofold prophecy he prophesied both together; that is, he represented and personified the just man and the people, because the Son of God was going to come to earth to be loved by just men and denied by unbelievers. And so Jacob, in sending his son to his brothers to see if it was well with the sheep, foresaw the mysteries of the incarnation that was to come. What sheep was God searching for in the concern manifested even at that time by the patriarch? The very ones of whom the Lord Jesus himself said in the Gospel, ‘I did not come except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ ‘And he sent him to Shechem,’ which name is interpreted as ‘shoulder’ or ‘back.’ That is, to those who did not turn to the Lord but fled from his face and turned away, an expression properly applied to the sinner, for ‘Cain went out from the face of the Lord,’ and the psalmist says, ‘You will make them turn their back.’ Now the just person does not turn away from the Lord but runs to meet him and says, ‘My eyes are ever toward the Lord.’ And when the Lord said, ‘Whom shall I send?’ Isaiah offered himself of his own accord and said, ‘Behold, here I am.’ Simeon also waited to see Christ the Lord; after he saw him, because he had seen the Pardoner of sins and Redeemer of the whole world, he asked to be freed from the use of this flesh, just as he had been relieved of his sin, and said, ‘Now dismiss your servant, Lord, because my eyes have seen your salvation.’ Zacchaeus too first gained the special privilege of having the Lord’s commendation bestowed on him for this, that he climbed a tree to see Christ. Therefore Joseph was sent by his father to his brothers, or rather by that Father ‘who has not spared his own Son but has delivered him for us all,’ by that Father of whom it is written, ‘God, sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.’” -St. Ambrose
Women's Prayer Group In Christ 