n of souls. The rich man will certainly not be higher in
heaven on account of his wealth; but he may increase his glory by
making a proper use thereof. He may relieve the necessities of the
fatherless and the widow; he may build up houses for the education of
the poor; he may increase the beauty and the majesty of God's
temples, and thus change his wealth into a means of reaching a very
high degree of glory in heaven. So with you, if you be wealthy,
talented, and highly educated, although you will not be higher in
heaven on account of these natural advantages, you may vastly
increase your glory by charity to the poor, by teaching the ignorant,
by writing or translating good books, by purchasing and circulating
such pious books among the poor, and by otherwise using your social
position for the advancement of religion, and glorifying God with the
natural advantages He has so liberally bestowed upon you.

But you may, perhaps, ask: Will not these different degrees of glory
cause envy and, therefore, unhappiness in the lowest among the
blessed? Will not kings and queens, and other great ones of this
world, be unhappy if they see the poor above them? when they see
those, to whom they imagined they could not even speak without
lowering their dignity, shining far above them in splendor? I answer,
that if kings, queens, and other great ones of this world have the
unspeakable good fortune of being admitted into heaven, they
certainly will not be envious of the greater glory they shall behold
in those upon whom they formerly looked down.

There is no envy in heaven. If we once admit the possibility of such
a thing as envy, then farewell to the happiness of heaven. For in
such a supposition no one could be happy. The lowest would envy the
happiness of those who are a little higher, and these would envy the
happiness of the highest, and these, again, would envy the happiness
of the Blessed Virgin; and she, too, would be unhappy, because she
does not possess the glory of the Hypostatic Union, which is the
privilege of Jesus Christ alone. The absurdity of all this is a
sufficient answer to the question. Each one in heaven is satisfied
with his own lot, because it suits himself and no one else. As St.
Augustine says: When a tall man and a little boy are both dressed in
a suit of the same precious cloth, each is suited and fitted to his
satisfaction. The little boy is neither envious nor unhappy because
the tall man has more cloth t