FIFTY-SECOND SERMON.
ON GAINING AN INCREASE OF HEAVENLY GLORY IN THIS LIFE.
Subject.
First, we can always add to our future glory in heaven; what a great advantage that is. Secondly, in what this increase of glory of one blessed soul above another consists.—Preached on the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Text.
Et factum est, dum irent mundati sunt.—Luke xvii. 14.
“And it came to pass, as they went they were made clean.”
Introduction.
Why were those ten lepers obliged to go to the priests in order to be made clean? Was not Jesus Christ the Almighty God, who with one word could free them at once from their loathsome disease, as He did with the leper in the Gospel of St. Matthew, who came to Him and said: “Lord, if Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean,” and the merciful Saviour at once granted his request: “And Jesus, stretching forth His hand, touched him, saying: I will. Be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed.”[1] Why did He send those ten lepers to the priests? To show that He does not always wish to dispense His graces and gifts immediately, but that in order to receive them we must do our part of the work. “And it came to pass, as they went they were made clean.” My dear brethren, God might of Himself alone free us from our past sins, but He does not do so in the present arrangements of His providence, since we must contribute our share too; namely, repenting of our sins and confessing them to the priest. God could of Himself alone make us eternally happy, but He does not wish to do so, since we have to work with Him, and by diligently practising virtue gain heaven as a reward. Yet that is a circumstance that should cause us to rejoice, for thus by our own efforts we may ascend higher in heaven, and by our work here on earth make our future glory there all the greater. This consideration should encourage us to practise good works daily and without giving way to weariness, for we can say to ourselves: heaven, everlasting joy and glory, could any labor or trouble be too much for me to possess and increase you! To the end that we may have thoughts of the kind always ready to arise in our minds, we shall make the glory of heaven the subject of this and the following instructions, not considering that glory as it is in itself, but a matter which you probably have not yet heard treated in a sermon, how it can be constantly and indeed easily increased during this life if we only wish to do so. We take the first point to-day.
Plan of Discourse.
That we can always add to our future glory in heaven, and what a great advantage that is; the first point. In what consists this increase of the glory of one blessed soul above another; the second point.
Jesus Christ, King of glory, who didst come down from heaven on this earth to make us heirs of Thy glory, fill our hearts with the desire of the joys Thou hast prepared for us, that we may daily labor in Thy service with unwearied zeal, and thus mount higher and higher in heaven! This we beg of Thee through the merits of Mary, the Queen of heaven, and our holy guardian angels.
As far as the substance of happiness is concerned, it is the same for all the elect. The substance and essence of perfect happiness and of the eternal glory that is prepared for us in heaven consists properly, as we have frequently seen already, in the perfect possession and enjoyment of the supreme Good through the beatific vision, and the perfect love of God and peaceful joy in God that spring from this vision. This glory is essentially the same with all the elect in heaven; for they all see their God clearly, all love Him with their whole hearts, all rejoice in Him eternally, and thus all are happy together in the perfect possession and enjoyment of the supreme Good.
Yet there is a difference according to the difference of merit. Meanwhile St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: “One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars. For star differeth from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead.”[2] His meaning is that just as one star differs from another in brilliancy, so in the resurrection of the dead the elect shall differ from each other in glory; so that although they shall all see God, yet it shall not be in the same manner, but one shall behold and possess Him more, another less, and in that way one shall have more glory than the other. The reason of this is because glory shall be measured out according to the degree of merit and the sanctifying grace accumulated by merit, and on that scale it shall be apportioned out and appropriated to each one for eternity. Now as the merits and sanctifying grace of the living on earth are greater or less, so also must the reward and glory of the blessed in heaven who have attained their end be different. Who can doubt that the glory of Mary, the great Mother of God, is incomparably greater than that of any ot the seraphim or any other saint? That the glory of St. Peter or St. Paul far excels that of the newly-baptized infant who died in its cradle after having received the sacrament? That the glory of the first martyr, Stephen, or of St. Jerome, who wore his life away in penitential austerities, is much greater than that of the penitent thief who was justified by repenting of his sins in the last moment of his life? No; not only among the choirs of the heavenly spirits, where one choir of the angels is distinguished from the other, are there various degrees of excellence, but also among the saints there will be a similar difference and variety, according as one surpasses the other in glory and brightness.
A difference, however, that does not cause jealousy. But, as we have seen already, this diversity does not occasion the least dissatisfaction among the elect, because in the state of perfect happiness there is no room for envy or sadness, since all love each other perfectly and rejoice in each other’s happiness just as they do in their own; and that because each one knows that a higher degree of glory than he ‘enjoys would not be suitable or becoming for him; therefore each one is quite content with his state.
Hence one can here make his future glory always greater and greater. From this it follows that as each one can add more and more to his merits on earth daily, hourly, nay, every moment by sanctifying grace, so also can he increase more and more his future glory in heaven and add to it almost infinitely. Degrees and dignities in heaven are on a far different footing from those on earth, where in a few steps we can reach the summit. Citizens, counsellors, nobles, counts, princes, kings, emperors, monarchs, there you have the whole of our earthly dignities, and no one may mount higher. But in heaven the ladder is endless in length; no matter how high you may go, you will never come to the last round, so that you shall be able to say: now I am at the top, and cannot go higher. No; the good we shall possess in heaven is the infinite God, an uncreated, immense, fathomless ocean of all imaginable delights and joys; no matter how deep you drink of it there will always remain more and more delights that can be enjoyed by a greater light of glory. Thus by increasing my merits and growing constantly in sanctifying grace I can become not only equal to the angels in heavenly glory, but can far surpass the angels, archangels, cherubim, and seraphim, and after I have accumulated merit to that extent, there are still higher and higher degrees beyond all the choirs of angels to which I might ascend if my life were prolonged and I continued to add to my merits. O Christians! what a happiness for us poor mortals if we only rightly consider the matter! What a priceless benefit the good God has bestowed on us in creating us for such a high and noble end, preserving our lives, aud placing us in the state by which, if we wish, we may attain such great happiness! Ah, should we not be fired by a noble emulation and vie with each other in adding more and more to this eternal happiness?
The least For what an immense, indescribable good is such an increase! degree of heavenly glory is an almost infinite good. St. Thomas of Aquin and St. Chrysostom, speaking of sanctifying grace, say that the least degree of heavenly glory, such as that apportioned to a child who dies just after baptism, is an immensely greater and more precious good than all possible goods of the whole world, even if God were to create millions of new worlds, and fill them with all sorts of delights; so that if the choice were given me between the supreme authority of all these worlds, with all the power, dignity, wealth, and pleasure that can be imagined in order to enable me to fill such a position, for not a hundred but a thousand millions of years in perfect peace, without trouble or annoyance of any kind; if I had to choose between this and the very lowest degree of glory in heaven, then without the least hesitation, if I acted rightly, I should take that lowest degree in preference to all this authority and prosperity on earth. The reason of this is evident: countless worlds with all their goods are after all only natural and finite things, but the good that is possessed and enjoyed in heavenly glory is the infinite God Himself; the authority over millions of worlds might last a thousand millions of years, but it must come to an end some time or other, while the glory of heaven can never diminish, and must last forever.
What a great good must not then be a still higher and higher degree of that glory! Now, my dear brethren, if the lowest degree of glory is so valuable, what shall we say of twenty, a hundred, a thousand, of millions of degrees of greater and greater glory in heaven, which any one as long as he lives may work for and attain by the grace of God? If, for instance, one piece of silver is worth a shilling, tow pieces of the same kind are double that value, and ten of them are ten times as much, a hundred are a hundred times more valuable, a thousand a thousand times, a million a million times; in the same way I say that a single degree of heavenly glory is such a precious treasure that it should not be bartered for countless worlds and worldly joys, then the second degree of glory is twice as precious, the hundredth, thousandth degree of increase is a hundred, a thousand times greater in value, and is a good that will last forever, and so on, according to the increase. Who can then understand or grasp the immensity of that good which consists in the increase of merit on earth and of eternal glory in heaven?
The saints in heaven understand this. St. Theresa, who saw in a vision a small ray of the glory of the blessed, was so captivated by it and filled with astonishment that she afterwards acknowledged that not only does the glory of the saints surpass all oar ideas of it, but also that there is such a difference of degree in that glory that she would purchase even the least increase of it by suffering all the torments of the world if necessary; and if she had to bear all the tortures of the martyrs till the last day for the sake of ascending but one step higher in heaven, she would bear them with gladness. And, my dear brethren, that is what we can gain so easily if we are in the state of grace, by a good thought, a sigh directed to God, by our daily labor, nay, by eating and drinking; every moment we can make our glory greater and greater. Oh, fools that we are, how little we esteem the great fortune that has fallen to our lot! If the blessed in heaven were capable of regret, they would be sorry for only one thing, and that is that they did not do more good, or suffer more while on earth, in order to gain more glory in heaven. If they could feel envy they would be jealous of us mortals, because we can still add constantly to our glory in heaven; and if they were permitted to interrupt their happiness they would readily return to earth in order to do more good and suffer more, so as to return to heaven laden with a richer cargo of merits. Father Barry, of our Society, writes of a pious lady who died after a long and painful illness; she appeared to him after death and told him that she was happy, but that she would without hesitation, if the chance were offered her, return to earth and suffer the same illness till the end of the world in order (mark this, my dear brethren) to merit as much additional glory as would correspond to what one might gain by the devout recital of one Hail Mary. O my God! to suffer so much for so little! Ah, but it is not a little thing that can increase the joys of heaven even in the least degree; it is not a little thing that lasts forever. That illness would have come to an end with this world; but the increase of glory would have lasted for all eternity.
We are at liberty always to add to our future glory: but most people neglect that. Now, my dear brethren, the good God allows us to do what is not permitted the saints in heaven. Although the heavenly citizens are incessantly occupied in acts of the most ardent love of God, they shall never on that account ascend a finger’s breadth higher in heaven for all eternity, because death has deprived them of all power of meriting. But we, as long as we are on the way to eternity, that is, while we are in this mortal life, have the power and opportunity by zeal in doing good, and by patiently bearing adversity, of adding every moment a new degree to our future eternal reward. O priceless time of grace! that we blind mortals so often misspend in idleness, and sleep, and frivolity, although we might gain endless treasures by it! O deplorable state of sin! in which most men are for weeks, months, and years without doing penance, and meanwhile, since they have not sanctifying grace, they are not able, even by works that are in themselves most holy, to add the least iota to the goods of heaven! How careful, diligent, and thrifty we are when there is question of making a few shillings and increasing our temporal wealth! Should we not employ at least the same amount of energy in adding to our eternal glory in heaven? But in what does this increase of glory properly consist which distinguishes one saint from another? The answer to this we shall see briefly in the
Second Part.
A higher degree of glory in heaven consists in a clearer vision of God. For one to be truly happy in the possession of a great good he must have a true knowledge and appreciation of the good he owns, otherwise he will find as little pleasure in it as a child would in a costly diamond, with whose value it is utterly unacquainted. And the clearer that knowledge is, the greater is the joy, the happiness that comes from the good possessed. Herein consists chiefly and solely the difference of glory among the elect in heaven, namely, in the clearer vision and knowledge of God. Each and every one of the blessed, as we have said before, beholds the uncovered face of God and the full plenitude of the divine essence; they all see His omnipotence, wisdom, holiness, goodness, justice, beauty, eternity, as well as all His other infinite perfections; yet one sees this far more clearly and perfectly than another, according as the greater or less degree of his merits affords him a greater or less light. Just as on earth any eye, even that of an ignorant peasant, can see the firmament and remark its size and roundness, its stars and clouds; but the astronomer with his glass can have a far clearer and more extended view of it. Any mind can grasp a truth along with its fundamental reason, but a cultivated mind will see it far clearer than an ignorant and unlearned one. Thus, speaking with due proportion of the blessed in heaven, it is also with the beatific vision, according to the greater or less amount of light that accompanies it.
In a greater From this clearer vision and knowledge of God comes anlikeness to God. other advantage: the blest soul who enjoys it is more like to God in beauty and knowledge. So great, my dear brethren, is the power of the Sovereign Good that it absorbs and, as it were, transforms into itself him who beholds it in glory. So speaks St. Paul: “But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face are transformed into the same image.”[3] “We know,” says St. John, “that when He shall appear we shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is.”[4] Now if that transformation and likeness to God takes place even in the least of the elect because he sees God, how much more perfect will it not be in one of the greater saints who see Him much clearer, and have His likeness more deeply impressed on them? And if even the least of the saints, illumined with even one degree of the light of glory, is made so beautiful by the mere vision of God that he far surpasses in splendor all created beauties, and shines seven times brighter than the sun, as St. Augustine says: “The lowest in the kingdom of heaven shall shine like the sun, which will then be seven times brighter than it now is,”[5] then a hundred thousand times more brilliant must be the beauty of the soul that is a hundred thousand degrees higher in glory. Who can grasp the immensity of the brightness and beauty of the principal inhabitants of the kingdom of God, of the apostles, the martyrs, and especially of the great Queen of heaven, Mary? O mortal! who art sometimes so bewitched by a perishable beauty that thy whole heart is ensnared by it, ah, raise the eyes of thy mind to the beauties of heaven, and rejoice that thou art furnished with ways and means of attaining even to their utmost perfection, if thou only wilt!
In a higher rank among the saints. Or perhaps thou art ambitious and strivest for a high place among men? Then again raise up thy eyes and thy honor-craving heart to the kingdom of heaven, and behold there the third advantage, the indescribable honor to which he shall be raised in the city of. God, before the whole court of heaven, who by the greater amount of merit accumulated in this life has prepared for himself a higher degree of glory, and a place so much nearer to the throne of the divine majesty. “I will give to them,” such is the promise of the Lord by the Prophet Isaias, “in My house, and within My walls, a place and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name which shall never perish. And the children of the stranger that adhere to the Lord, to worship Him, and to love His name, to be His servants,…I will bring them into My holy mount,”[6] and I will make them great in glory before the others. Oh, what an honor to have the preference for all eternity in the kingdom of Ood! Here on earth we see how the saints are honored in all Christendom by churches built to their memory, and splendid altars, and magnificent statues, and by all sorts of offerings, vows, prayers, and hymns; we see how princes and kings bend the knee before their relics and humbly beseech their intercession; but what must it be in heaven, where their dignity and holiness are far better understood and appreciated and more fervently loved? It is a great honor to be held in esteem by many men, by men of understanding and learning, and especially by great men; and the greater the number of those who show the honor, the more is the honor itself increased and prized. What then must be the exceeding great and unspeakable honor of the saint who is raised above others in heaven? for he is admired, prized, loved, praised, esteemed by a countless multitude of the wisest, noblest, most mighty of the elect of God; that is, by so many princes and chiefs of the heavenly kingdom, by so many millions of saints, amongst whom are popes, prelates, doctors, virgins, martyrs, confessors, religious, apostles, patriarchs, prophets, and moreover by so many millions of angels, archangels, thrones, dominations, cherubim and seraphim; by Mary, the Queen of angels, nay, by Jesus Christ Himself, the King of glory, and finally by the supreme majesty of the Most Holy and Divine Trinity. David, who saw but a small spark of it, was so rapt in admiration that he exclaimed: “To me Thy friends, O God! are made exceedingly honorable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.”[7] Ah, vain children of the world, why do you run so foolishly after a petty, empty honor that exists only in the false ideas of men? Why do you go to such trouble to beg for a worthless title, a nod of the head, a rank that seems to place you a finger’s breadth higher than others in the social scale? “O ye sons of men!…why do you love vanity and seek after lying?”[8] Do you really wish to gratify your ambition? Then you have a most glorious opportunity of so doing; it is in your power, by increasing your merits daily, hourly, and every moment, to raise yourselves higher and higher in true honorin heaven. But, alas! who thinks of this?
In greater joy. Finally, the difference of glory in heaven consists in the greater happiness one saint shall have above another in the eternal possession of God. For just as in hell, although all the damned lie in the same fire, yet their torments are different according to the debts they have incurred and sins committed, so the blessed in heaven shall share its joys and delights according to the measure of their merits, although they shall all see the same God. Of the blessed in general the prophet David says: “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house: and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure;”[9] so that they shall swim as it were in an ocean of delights and pleasures. Now if there is such an inundation of joy in the vision and love of God, even in the case of those blessed souls who have brought only one degree of sanctifying grace, received in the sacrament of baptism, with them out of this life into eternity, how immense must not be the eternal joys of a saint who is higher in bliss, who kept on increasing sanctifying grace and thereby everlasting glory in heaven every hour, nay, every moment sometimes, for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years, during which time he lived in the state of grace on earth?
So that we must be most grateful to God, who preserves us that we may earn more glory in heaven. O joys! O joys of, heaven! O eternal joys of heaven! so it depends on myself then, if I only choose, to make you always greater and greater for myself? O my God! what thanks do I not owe Thee for having preserved me in life for so many years, and offered me so many graces that I might increase my great happiness in heaven! On one occasion a demon was exorcised, and while he was yet in the body of the possessed person was asked what he would do to arrive at the vision of God. His answer was that if he had a passible body, such as we have, and if God were to create a fiery pillar, beset all round with sharp swords and knives, and that pillar reached from the lowest depths of earth to the highest heavens, he would willingly climb up and down this pillar till the day of judgment, tearing his flesh to pieces, if he could only by so doing see God for one moment, although the next moment he should have to go back to hell again forever. My God, what am 1 to think of this! If the spirit of evil would think himself happy to have even a momentary glance at the divine countenance, and would be ready to purchase it at the cost of so much suffering, how fortunate am I not? for by using very easy means during my short life I can gain that heavenly vision, not merely for a moment, but for all eternity; nay, if I will, I can enhance its joy and glory and make it greater and greater forever! Should I not be willing to toil and labor incessantly for that object? But, O fool that I am, and forgetful of my own interests! hitherto my chief care and labor have been devoted to temporal things that cannot be of any use to me in eternity, while that infinite good has had but little place in my thoughts! Ah, how many beautiful opportunities I have lost of adding to my eternal glory in heaven! I could have added to it in that illness, in that painful affliction, in that great injustice that I suffered from. All my impatience, my murmurs and complaints against God, my curses and imprecations against those whom I imagined to be the causes of my misfortune, have made these crosses useless to me. I could have increased my glory by the practice of Christian charity and mercy towards the poor and needy, but my avarice and inordinate greed of gain hardened my heart to pity and kept my hand closed to generosity. I could have increased my glory by more frequently mortifying my senses and by voluntary penances, but my self-love hindered me from doing it. I could have increased my glory by more frequently receiving the holy sacraments, but my laziness and sloth stood in my way. I could have increased it by prayer, and often raising my mind to God, but my domestic occupations hardly allowed me to think of Him once during the day. I could have increased it even by my daily labor, and those occupations that I had to spend my time in every day according to the requirements of my state of life, but through want of a good supernatural intention all my labor and work have been fruitless, as far as gaining heaven is concerned. But in future I shall know how to look after my interests better; no minute of the precious time that still remains to me shall go by without merit, that I may always raise my throne in heaven higher and nearer to the throne of God, so that I may behold my God all the more clearly, love Him all the more perfectly, and rejoice in Him all the more. Amen.
- ↑ Domine, si vis, potes me mundare. Extendens Jesus manum, tetigit eum, dicens: volo. Mundare. Et confestim mundata est lepra ejus.—Matt. viii. 2, 3.
- ↑ Alia claritas solis, alia claritas lunæ, alia clarltas stellarum. Stella enim a stella differt in claritate. Sic et resurrectio mortuorum.—I. Cor. xv. 41, 42.
- ↑ Nos vero omnes, revelata facie gloriam Domini specnlantes, in eandem imaginem transformamur.—II. Cor. iii. 18.
- ↑ Scimus, quoniam cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus; quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.—I. John iii. 2.
- ↑ Ultimus In regno ccelorum, ut sol fulgeblt, qui tunc septles clarior, quam nunc erit.—S. Aug. Tract. de cognit. veræ vitæ.
- ↑ Dabo eis in domo mea et in muris meis locum, et nomen meum a filiis et filiabus; nomen sempiternum dabo eis, quod non peribit. Et filios advenæ, qui adhærent Domino, ut colant eum, et diligant nomen ejus, ut sint ei in servos…adducam eos in montem sanctum meum.—Is. lvi. 5–7.
- ↑ Mihi nimis honorificati sunt amici tui, Deus; nimis confortatus est principatus eorum.—Ps. cxxxviii. 17.
- ↑ Filii hominum, utquid diligitis vanitatem et quæritis mendacium?—Ps. iv. 3.
- ↑ Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuæ, et torrente voluptatis tuæ potabis eos.—Ibid. xxxv. 9.