Vessels of Honor
Louis Markos on All the Glory We Can Hold
All men, as our Declaration of Independence boldly asserts, “are created equal,” but no one could ever claim that all men are equally gifted, and sometimes I am asked what will happen when unequally gifted Christians reach Heaven. Some people seem to worry that Heaven will be arranged like an earthly enterprise, with everyone rewarded according to his success.
They worry, apparently, despite the biblical evidence. Look at the parable of the talents. In this parable (Matt. 25:14–30), Jesus tells us of three servants entrusted with five talents, two talents, and one talent respectively. The third, slothful servant buries his talent in the ground and receives only scorn and condemnation from his master.
But what of the first two? The first makes five more talents, while the second makes only two. We might expect that when the day of reckoning arrives, the first servant will be praised more highly than the second, because he has made more.
But this, unexpectedly, does not occur. Rather than elevate the first over the second, the master bestows upon both servants the exact same blessing (a blessing that all who are serious about using their gifts hope someday to hear): “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.”
God is just and merciful. He judges us not by what we begin with, but by what we do with what we have been given. The two servants in the parable receive the same blessing, for they both made maximum use of the talents given them.
Piccarda’s Bliss
On earth, God expects us to succeed in accordance with our gifts: no more, no less. In Heaven, I believe, we shall receive as much blessing and reward as we are able to hold: no more, no less.
This Dante saw. On his journey through Paradise, he meets Piccarda, a nun who, because she broke a vow, inhabits the lowest level of Heaven, that of the moon. Dante is puzzled by her calm serenity and asks her if she does not wish to ascend to a higher station than the one she now inhabits. She answers:
“Brother, the virtue of our charity
brings quiet to our wills, so we desire but what we have, and thirst for nothing else.
If we should feel a yearning to be higher, such a desire would strike disharmony against His will who knows,
and wills us here . . .”
She tells Dante that the essence of Heaven’s bliss is to “delight the King in whose desire/ We find our own. In His will is our peace.” Then, writes Dante,
Louis Markos , Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. His 19 books include Lewis Agonistes; Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C. S. Lewis; On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis; and From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis.
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