Meditation for November 25, Spiritual Inequalities

When I compare the favors accorded to certain saints, perhaps to souls that are close to me, with the difficulties that I experience in serving God perfectly, or in remaining faithful to prayer; when I consider how they seem to fly in the service of the Good Master, transported, as it were, to the seventh heaven, I feel myself moved not exactly to jealousy but to regret.

What have I done to the Good God? Have I not tried to serve Him with the entirety of my weak powers? Why does He treat me so differently?

Here is how one of the masters of the Spiritual Life, Alvarez de Paz, explains the reasons for these inequalities in the distribu­tion of graces:

"Equality does not demand that all the just be raised to the same degree of purity. The heavenly fatherland is not a pile of uniform stones, but a perfect city whose particular characteristic is inequality in rank, in variety, and dignity. After the manner of a city, there must be different classes. Those who are neither called nor elected to the eminent glory of the Apostles, the martyrs, or doctors, do not receive the corresponding grace for that glory or that state, but a wealth of help in harmony with their personal vocation."

Moreover, by this unequal distribution of grace the Savior has not only regarded the laws of Providence, but He has manifested His divine condescension to the infirmity of the elect, not wishing to impose on them a burden out of proportion to their strength, lest they succumb under the weight of the favors bestowed. That is why some have received five talents, others two, and others only one, according to their capacity of making them valuable.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)