treasures in heaven. plorable fact that even this very simile must cause us to blush with shame, and condemn our sloth and laziness in the divine service. The King of kings opens his treasury—His heaven—and offers to men all that He has therein. And what sort of a treasure is it? A hundred thousand times a thousand million of hundred weight of gold and silver? A palace, a city built of precious stones? Eh! these and similar things are mere shadows and figures to help our weak understanding, as long as it is clothed with flesh, to grasp in some measure the happiness of the next life, for it cannot form any idea of it otherwise. What we shall receive in heaven as a reward is an infinite, immense good,—the supreme God Himself. “I am Thy protector, and Thy reward exceeding great,”[1] He says to Abraham and to all the faithful. We shall see God; we shall possess God completely; we shall love God; we shall rejoice in God; we shall have in God all imaginable joys and happiness, and that for all eternity, without ever fearing that it shall come to an end. And mark that we need not trouble about anything further; this treasury is open to all; every man has full leave and permission to share in it by every meritorious work he performs, and to amass as many treasures of glory as he wishes in God. Nor is there any crowding or pushing here on account of the multitude of people; heaven is not a small treasure-chamber. “In My Father’s house there are many mansions,”[2] such is the assurance given us by Christ; there is room for all; the multitude pressing for entrance cannot crowd the door; the number who come for a share in the treasure cannot lessen it. When here on earth there are many children to share an inheritance, each one gets but a small portion. The heavenly inheritance is inexhaustible, for God Himself shall be the infinite and eternal lot of each one. Come forward, then, boldly! Take as much as you wish and can carry off with you.
This life is the time for us to gain it. But what time has been proclaimed? what hour appointed in which we can strive for this heavenly, eternal treasure? The King of heaven has announced that to us by the apostle St. Paul: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”[3] Now, while we are together, and as long as we live it is free to us to gain heaven. “Trade till I come”[4] is the word spoken to all by the holy Evangelist St. Luke; trade
