Three Classes of People



A meditation to choose that which is better. This is the history of the Three Classes of People:

Each of them has acquired ten thousand ducats (money, talents, prestige, honor). They all wish salvation and to find peace in God our Lord by ridding themselves of the burden arising from the attachment to the sum acquired, which impedes the attainment of this end.

This is a mental representation of the place:

See yourself standing in the presence of God and all the saints, and ask for the grace to know and desire what is more pleasing to God. Ask for the grace to choose what is more for the glory of God.

First class of People: They would like to rid themselves of the attachments they have acquired in order to find peace in God, our Lord, and assure their salvation, but the hour of death comes, and they have not made use of any means.

Second class of People: These want to rid themselves of the attachment, but they wish to do so in such a way that they retain what they have acquired.

Third class of People: These want to rid themselves of the attachment, but they wish to do so in such a way that they desire neither to retain nor to relinquish the sum acquired. They seek only to will and not will as God inspires them and what seems better for the service and praise of God. The desire to better serve God will be the cause of their accepting anything or relinquishing it.

SCRIPTURE READINGS
Matthew 19:16-22
Luke 14:25-27
Luke 1:38
Phil 3:7-12

The problem in the spiritual life is choosing the better thing and in freeing ourselves to see what God thinks is the better thing. Often we do not bring God to our desires. We want to be constantly aware of the areas of resistance within ourselves - our own private battle of the Two Standards.