If we now consider how wonderfully easy God has made this increase of merits and consequently of eternal glory, we can easily conclude that He has a great desire to bring us to heaven and give us a high place there, and a great wish that we should strive incessantly for this high place; as we shall see in this instruction.
Plan of Discourse.
Wonderfully easy has God made the means of increasing sanctifying grace here, and eternal glory hereafter. Such is the whole subject. Let us then use them with unceasing zeal, and in all our actions seek first the kingdom of God.
Such shall be the conclusion, with Thy grace, O dear Lord! which we beg of Thee through the Mother of grace and our holy guardian angels.
God does not require anything very great or extraordinary of us to gain heaven. If the Almighty were to exact of us mortals great, extraordinary, and most difficult work and labor in order to gain His eternal heaven; if He were to say to each one of us: see, heaven is offered you, but if you wish to gain it you must cut yourself with knives over your whole body, tear yourself with hooks, burn yourself with glowing torches, cut off your limbs, allow yourself to be boiled in oil, and those torments you must endure for a thousand years without interruption or alleviation, for I will not give heaven to any one for a lower price: what would you think of that, my dear brethren? Would it not be a hard price to pay? Would you not shudder with horror at the thought of having to endure such torments? And yet would it’ be asking too much? Would the price be too high for the possession of an infinite Good? for the privilege of dwelling in the land of everlasting joys? For the sake of gaining an eternal heaven, says St. Augustine, it would be but right to undertake an eternal labor; and as we heard in the last sermon, the evil spirit offered to endure the most fearful torments till the last day if he might thereby enjoy the sight of God only for a moment. And several saints professed their willingness, if such were the will of God, to suffer the most painful illness till the end of the world, only to increase their glory in heaven by as much as could be gained by saying devoutly one Hail Mary.
But accepts our daily and even
But, O God of goodness! how little Thou really askest of us as the price of Thy eternal kingdom of heaven! What easy means