Salesian Literature

Chapter 7:  The charity of saints on earth equals, even occasionally exceeds, that of saints in heaven

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When saintly souls make the harbour of eternal life, after the passing toil and peril of this one, it is on a flood tide which carries them to the utmost degree of love they can possibly attain.

 

Up there, among the saints, the practice of charity is unceasing, never in abeyance; here below, God’s greatest servants, torn and trampled by the transitory needs of life, are compelled to suffer innumerable distractions which frequently hinder its practice.

 

In heaven the loving attention of the saints is steady, staunch, unassailable; it cannot die or diminish.  Their intention is ever pure, free from the interplay of all lower motion is ever pure, free from the interplay of all lower motives.  After all, the bliss of seeing God clearly, of loving him unchangingly, is without parallel.  Would you ever liken the advantages – if such there be – of life at sea (beset with perils, frequent storms, unending pitching and rolling) to the contentment of a royal palace – where everything is as you would have it, where the enchantment is utterly beyond your dreams?

 

So the citizens of heaven know great contentment, charm, perfection in the practice of charity than do pitiful pilgrims of earth. Some pilgrims, however, have been fortunate enough, even on their journey through this world, for their charity to have exceeded that of many saints already enjoying our eternal home.  Most assuredly, the charity of the great St. John, of the apostles, and men of their ilk, was obviously greater – even while they lived on earth – than the charity of children, fresh from baptism, who were already enjoying the glory of heaven.

 

Some folk here, though inferior in the practice of charity to saints in the next world, have outstripped them in the habit of charity.  Asked to compare a glowing poker and a lighted lamp, we should say that the poker, on fire, is hotter, while the lamp, with its flame, is brighter.  In the same way, comparing a child in heaven with St. John in exile, or St. Paul in prison, we should say that the child has greater brightness (more light for the intellect), greater flame (a more intense practice of charity in the will), but that St. John or St. Paul, even on earth, had a more ardent charity, a greater warmth of affection.

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