I had always wondered why
it was that God has his preferences, instead of giving each soul an
equal degree of grace... Jesus has been gracious enough to teach me a
lesson about this mystery, simply by holding up to my eyes the book of
nature. I realised, then, that all the flowers he has made are
beautiful; the rose in its glory, the lily in its whiteness, don't rob
the tiny violet of its sweet smell, or the daisy of' its charming
simplicity. I saw that if all these lesser blooms wanted to be roses
instead, nature would lose the gaiety of her spring tide dress-there
would be no little flowers to, make a pattern over the countryside.
And
so it is with the world of souls, which is his garden. He wanted to
have great Saints, to be his lilies and roses, but he has made lesser
Saints as well; and these lesser ones must be content to rank as daisies
and violets, lying at his feet and giving pleasure to his eye like
that. Perfection consists simply in doing his will, and being just what
he wants us to be.
This, too, was made clear to me: that our
Lord's love makes itself seen quite as much in the simplest of souls as
in the most highly gifted, as long as there is no resistance offered to
his grace. After all, the whole point of love is making yourself small;
and if we were all like the great Doctors who have shed lustre on the
Church by their brilliant teaching, there wouldn't be much condescension
on God's part, would there, about coming into hearts like these? But
no, he has created little children, who have no idea what's going on and
can only express themselves by helpless crying: he has made the poor
savages, with nothing better than the natural law to live by; and he is
content to forget his dignity and come into their hearts too - these are
the wild flowers that delight him by their simplicity. It is by such
condescension that God shows his infinite greatness. The sun's light
that plays on the cedar-trees plays on each tiny flower as if it were
the only one in existence; and in the same way our Lord takes a special
interest in each soul, as if there were no other like it.
in evangelhoquotidiano.org
