agination, what a beautiful thing to be held high in honor and the esteem of the world! What a fine thing to possess much money and property, to live in abundance, to wear magnificent clothing! What a paradise it is to enjoy one’s self, to indulge in sensual pleasures! All these things he describes most cleverly. Now if we believe him; if we consider only the goods he proposes to us, then indeed we shall form a very high opinion of them, and since most people fix all their thoughts and attention on them, their hearts and desires are completely buried in them, so highly do they value such things.
It is therefore necessary for us often to think of heaven. But after all the devil is only a deceiver, a lying geographer. Let us see what the astronomer has to say; then will the earth appear to us miserably small and mean. Let us take counsel of our faith, and ponder deeply on what it tells us of heavenly goods; let us often fix our thoughts on heaven, raise our eyes thither, and say to ourselves: behold the firmament; see how great and magnificent are the very lowest parts of the city of God; what must then be the glory of the divine palace itself? All that I can desire, hope for, wish for, possess, enjoy on earth is but transitory; it lasts only a short time; it is uncertain whether I shall ever have what I wish to have, and if I get it, it is equally uncertain whether I shall be master of it for one hour. There in heaven a boundless ocean of wealth, honors, and pleasures awaits me, and they will never come to an end; there I shall be safe from all evil and fear forever; there I shall enjoy for eternity whatever can delight my soul and my body with its five senses, and I shall enjoy myself to complete satiety; there I shall possess the God of infinite majesty and beauty as my own property and inheritance, and according to my own good will and pleasure for all eternity. True, I have not yet seen all this, but I am more certain of it by my faith than if my eyes had beheld it; I have the infallible written word of God for it that all these heavenly goods shall be mine if I serve Him truly for a short time during this life. What then would it profit me to gain the whole world with all its goods, honors, and pleasures if I had to suffer the loss of an eternal heaven?
Then shall our hearts be drawn from the world, and fixed on
O Christians! if we often recall this thought to our minds with a lively faith, how far different would be our judgment of earthly things! We should cry out with Saint Ignatius: “How vile the earth seems when I look up to heaven!” Nothing would be so dear or valuable to us that we would not willingly