Eternal life is far better than this life in every possible way
3 min • Digitized on October 8, 2023
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 103
By Venerable Louis of Granada
All that we have hitherto said relates only to the accidental glory of the Saints. They possess another glory incomparably superior, which theologians call the essential glory. This is the vision and possession of God Himself. For St. Augustine tells us that the reward of virtue will be God Himself, the Author of all virtue, Whom we will untiringly contemplate, love, and praise for all eternity. What reward could be greater than this? It is not Heaven, or earth, or any created perfection, but God, the Source of all beauty and all perfection.
The blessed inhabitants of Heaven will enjoy in Him all good, each according to the degree of glory he has merited. For since God is the Author of every good that we behold in creatures, it follows that He possesses in Himself all perfection, all goodness, in an infinite degree. He possesses them, because otherwise He could not have bestoAved them on creatures. He possesses them in an infinite degree, because as His Being is infinite, so also are His attributes and His perfections.
God, then, will be our sovereign beatitude and the fulfilment of all our desires. In Him we will find the perfections of all creatures exalted and transfigured. In Him we will enjoy the beauty of all the seasons—the balmy freshness of spring, the rich beauty of summer, the luxurious abundance of autumn, and the calm repose of winter. In a word, all that can delight the senses and enrapture the soul will be ours in Heaven.
“In God,” says St. Bernard, “our understandings will be filled with the plenitude of light; our wills with an abundance of peace; and our memories with the joys of eternity. In this abode of all perfection the wisdom of Solomon will appear but ignorance; the beauty of Absalom deformity; the strength of Samson weakness; the longest life of man a brief mortality; the wealth of kings but indigence.”
Why, then, O man! will you seek straws in Egypt? Why will you drink troubled waters from broken cisterns, when inexhaustible treasures, and the fountain of living water springing up into eternal life, await you in Heaven? Why will you seek vain and sensual satisfactions from creatures, when unalterable happiness may be yours?
If your heart crave joy, raise it to the contemplation of that Good which contains in Itself all joys. If you are in love with this created life, consider the eternal life which awaits you above. If the beauty of creatures attract you, live that you may one day possess the Source of all beauty, in Whom are life, and strength, and glory, and immortality, and the fulness of all our desires.
If you find happiness in friendship and the society of generous hearts, consider the noble beings with whom you will be united by the tenderest ties for all eternity. If your ambition seek wealth and honors, make the treasures and the glory of heaven the end of all your efforts. Finally, if you desire freedom from all evil and rest from all labor, in Heaven alone can your desires be gratified.