although perfectly happy, are
nevertheless far inferior in their degree of union with God and
personal splendor. You will immediately infer that these practised
virtue in an inferior degree. Your judgment is right again; for, in
heaven, the glory which surrounds every saint is a rule by which we
can judge of his moral worth, and of the amount of virtue which he
practised while living in this world; because there it is all a just
reward, and not the result of one's birth, or of any caprice of
fortune.

CHAPTER XV.

DEGREES OF ENJOYMENT THROUGH THE GLORIFIED SENSES.

The possession and enjoyment of God in the Beatific Vision is not the
whole happiness of man in heaven; nor is it the only one in which
there are different degrees of enjoyment. Our senses, also, as well
as our minds, are to be elevated far beyond their present capacities
for enjoyment. They, too, are to receive a supernatural development,
an exquisite delicacy of perception, and power of conveying pleasures
to the soul, in proportion to the merits we have acquired by the
holiness of our lives. They, consequently, who, have led the holiest
lives, are not only the most intimately united to God, not only the
most completely transformed into Him by partaking more abundantly of
the Divine Nature; but their senses, also, are glorified and elevated
in power of enjoyment far above theirs who have practised virtue in
an inferior degree. Hence the highest in heaven will receive
immensely more pleasure thorough their senses, than others whose
lives have not been so holy. Any contrary doctrine would savor of
heresy.

If you were told, for instance, that a musician, who never served
God, but who, nevertheless, received the grace of a death-bed
repentance, shall, on account of his cultivated musical ear, enjoy
more pleasure from heavenly music than the Blessed Virgin, the
apostles, martyrs, and holy virgins, your whole soul would
undoubtedly revolt at such a doctrine. You would maintain that if
heaven is the reward of supernatural virtue, its whole happiness, its
every joy, and its every delight, whether from God himself or from
creatures, should be enjoyed in a higher degree by those who have
loved and served Him in a more perfect manner, and sacrificed
themselves more completely for Him.

You would certainly be right in maintaining all this, for it is
certainly so. The highest in heaven will not only possess a greater
elevation of mind--which is necessary