The peace, company, glory, harmony, and beauty of Heaven are more than worth some pains on earth.
3 min • Digitized on October 10, 2023
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 105
By Venerable Louis of Granada
God in the Old Law ordained that children should be circumcised on the eighth day after birth, teaching us thereby that, on the day of the general resurrection which will follow the short space of this life, He will cut off the miseries and sufferings of those who for love of Him have circumcised their hearts by cutting off all the sinful affections and pleasures of this world. Now, who can conceive a happier existence than this, which is exempt from every sorrow and every infirmity?
“In Heaven,” says St. Augustine, “we shall cease to feel the trials of want or sickness. Pride or envy will never enter there. The necessity of eating or drinking will there be unknown. The desire for honors will never disturb our calm repose. Death will no longer reach body or soul, united as they will be with the Source of all life, which they will enjoy throughout a blessed immortality.”
Consider, moreover, the glory and happiness of living in the company of the angels, contemplating the beauty of these sublime spirits; admiring the resplendent virtue of the Saints, the rewards with which the obedience of the patriarchs and the hope of the prophets have been crowned; the brilliant diadems of the martyrs, dyed with their own blood, and the dazzling whiteness of the robes with which the virgins are adorned.
But what tongue can describe the beauty and the majesty of the Sovereign Monarch who reigns in their midst? “If by daily enduring fresh torments,” says St. Augustine, “and even suffering for a time the pains of hell, we were permitted for one day to contemplate this King in all His glory and enjoy the society of His elect, surely it would be a happiness cheaply purchased.” What, then, can we say of the happiness of possessing these joys for all eternity?
Conceive, if you can, the ravishing harmony of the celestial voices chanting the words heard by St. John: “Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.” If the harmony of these voices will cause us such happiness, how we will rejoice at the unity that we will behold between soul and body! And this concord will be still more marked between angels and men, whilst between God and men the union will be so close that we can form no adequate idea of it.
What glory, then, will it be for the creature to find himself seated at the banquet of the King of kings, partaking of His table—that is, of His honor and His glory! Oh! enduring peace of heaven; oh! unalterable joy; oh! entrancing harmonies; oh! torrents of celestial delight, why are ye not ever present to the minds of those who labor and combat on earth?
If such be the happiness which faith tells us is the reward of the just, how great is your blindness if you are not moved thereby to practise virtue!