Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost 2016-08-07

Sometimes we hear pious people say that they would be Saints if only they were in a convent or monastery, where everything around them would speak to them of God, but that it is impossible for them to be so at home in the midst of the noise and bustle of the world. This is a great mistake; it is as easy, and sometimes easier, to become a Saint at home than in the cloister. We can all become Saints in the place where God has put us, if we only try.

One of the ancient Fathers in the desert had a vision of Heaven. He saw there, as it were, four different companies of Saints placed one above the other in glory.

The lowest group was composed of those who, while on earth, had been afflicted with sickness and bodily infirmities, and had borne them patiently for God's sake. The second group consisted of those who had in this life been kind to strangers and the poor, and had spent their lives in acts of charity towards their neighbour. In the third group were those holy solitaries who for Christ's sake had left the world to seek only the kingdom of God by a life of prayer and penance. All these were enjoying great happiness in God's holy presence.

But the fourth group was still more glorious; and those who composed it seemed to possess even a greater happiness than the others. The solitary asked the Angel who showed him these things who those were who formed that glorious company.

Those whom you see so high up and so beautiful, answered the Angel, are those who, when in the world, had been obedient. The others served God well, therefore they are now enjoying the reward of their fidelity. But in their good works there was much that was agreeable to themselves. But those who were obedient renounced their own will to submit themselves to the will of others whom God had placed over them, and for this God has bestowed on them a higher degree of glory.

Learn, then, from this example how agreeable to God is obedience.

The Catechism in Examples.