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.”[1] 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
- ↑ 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.
