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,”[1] 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.”[2] 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
- ↑ 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.
