March 25

Monday after Seragesima Sunday

One star differeth from another star in glory. I CORINTHIANS xv. 41.

Not merely in the degree of glory, but in the kind. Just as there is the white, silvery light of Venus, so very different from the full, liquid lustre of Jupiter, or the prismatic sparkling of the day-star. So compare the fiery courage of S. Laurence or S. Vincent, the infinite tenderness of S. Bernard, the courtesy and being made all things to all men of S. Francis de Sales, the asceticism of S. Jerome, the wonderful learning of S. Augustine. Like difference, be sure, among the Saints; like difference of character, of actions, of merit; like difference of reward, as the hymn says:

Though each one's respective merit Hath respective palm assigned, Love takes all in his possession, Where his power hath all combined; So that all that each possesses All may share in, unconfined.

And then the order and mutual attraction and responsive motions of those stars; have they not their parallel in the Saints? Has not God raised up exactly the Saint that was needed in the great storms of His Church? When the enemy came in with a flood of blasphemy in the fourth century, was not Athanasius—never to be terrified, never to be fatigued, never till his work was done to be worn out—the very Saint for God's work against the enemies of the Consubstantial Son? When the Church was clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day, was not S. Francis called forth to say, "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven"? And as the Wise Man says of the stars, so of the Saints too: "They never faint in their watches."