Jesus says:
“When you saw the eternal Paradise you wondered why the recently formed souls had different degrees of color.396
“It is not that these spiritual sparks which animate really possess a color. In order for your senses to be able to comprehend and for your attention to notice this and wonder about the reason for it, this perceptible variation in color was shown to you. But it was to serve only to make you ask, ‘Why are there such differences if the Source is one?’
“God the Creator is unlimited in his power. God the Creator is perfect in his creating. God the Creator is far-sighted in his working.
“He did not make stars alone for the sky They would have been of use only for your nights. He did not make the moon alone as a planet. It would have been of use only to indicate to you the passing of the months. He did not make the sun alone or many suns alone. They would have scorched you by shining night and day uninterruptedly.
“But He made the sun for the day and regulated the revolution of the other heavenly bodies around it so that these, by a law of order, would regulate light and warmth. He made the moon as a first measure of time and so it would regulate the tides and other more intimate laws of creation. He made the stars so that you would have a compass on dark nights.
“He did not make the meadow grasses alone. Or the harvests of the fields alone. Or the vine and the olive tree alone, or the fruit-bearing plants alone. But He made all of them and joined together for you the best-loved plants, the flowers, useful plants providing wood for your houses, and medicinal plants supplying you with juices needed to heal diseases.
“He did not make placid ruminants alone, but also swift horses. Or birds alone, but also fish. Not just the beasts easy to domesticate, but also the ones that in their wild existence are useful in cleaning fields and forests. The snake, too, the accursed snake laden with venom, is useful because of this venom, employed to treat some of the most distressing infirmities.
“And all of these species obey the reason for which they were made, the order which was given them. From the sun to the gnat, there is none which says, ‘I want to do as I please.’ But, with their voice of heat, if stars, of juices, if plants, of sound, if animals, or of darting, if voiceless animals, such as fish, they say, ‘Yes, Creator, here we are. You made us for “this,” and we do “this” for your glory.’
“Consider, O men, what would happen if the earth, an immense meteor, were obstinate and no longer wanted to follow its trajectory in the heavens. One hemisphere would then burn, and the other would freeze. On one there would be eternal darkness and thus the death of animal and plant life because of darkness and cold. On the other there would be eternal light and heat and thus the death of life from an excess of light and warmth.
“Consider, O men, the result if sheep no longer provided wool, cows milk, plants fruits, and so on. And yet if animals, plants, and stars followed your example, chaos would bring you to perish in inconceivable horror, now that everything, except you, proceeds in the order received from God.
“The Creator, as He provides for this, provides for order in regard to humanity. His Most Holy Mind considers that for the good of the earth so many thinkers, so many scientists, so many warriors, and so many workers are needed, and, as regards temperaments, so many bold ones, so many meek ones, so many active ones, so many contemplatives, and so on.
“Souls cease to animate a body and return to God to be destined according to their merits. God creates new souls to maintain the number of creatures who must populate the earth. The first operation involves divine order. The second is to create, according to the needs He sees, one particular category as more numerous than another, so that everything will be harmonious in the race and each will serve the other, as the teeth in a gear serve the gear next to it, causing the giant machine to move without friction or damage.
“This is what God does. And if you obeyed in this way, everything would go forward. But you rebel.
“Who among you is happy with his destiny? No one. At least very few. Always restless, dominated by passions, forgetful of God, or very lukewarm in fervor, you thus follow the voices of disorder and create disorder.
“The first point resides in your rebellion against the divine Law, which says to you, ‘Love and respect God; serve Him alone; love and respect your parents; do not steal; do not kill; do not slander; do not be dissolute.’397 From this initial disorder there then issue forth all the other misfortunes, and you become slaves of yourselves or of someone among you that without authorization proclaims himself to be what he is not. You become such because you have not wanted to be, not slaves, but children of a Father whose goodness is not surpassed by anyone.
“Consider that even the angels have different tasks. And one is a guardian of a man; and another, an announcer; and another, an adoring seraph. And you, in all that was created - do not be the only ones to guide yourselves according to your wretched will.
“‘ Our Father..., thy will be done.’398 The soul, when just created, says this, and if it is true that original sin then injects into it the opposing will of the rebellious Lucifer, it is also a truth of faith that the Sacrament of Baptism restores you to the snowwhiteness of the heavenly beginning, and the Holy Spirit confirms you in it, and the Eucharist fortifies you therein.
“Repudiate, then, the voices of what is concupiscence, and come back, come back, come back to obedience. Join the festive stars in their obedience, the flowers and the harvests, trees and animals - all of them glad in their obedience. Oh, how superior to you they are in this respect! And follow the way that God has assigned to you.
“And do not say, ‘How can I know it?’ If from the most tender years on you remain faithful, it will shine before you like a golden band. If, after an instance of losing your way, you want to follow it, it will shine once again. For God is good and wants your individual and collective good. He is swift to forgive and assist moral and spiritual resurrections.
“Those variations in color were intended to make you grasp that the impermanence of one category or another - which makes you suffer - does not proceed from God. It is souls that spontaneously leave the class the Lord placed them in and disturb the harmony of human society by following appetites; among them the least wicked are those that are only selfish, to achieve relative wellbeing, and the most blameworthy, those that, just to satisfy themselves, tear their neighbors to pieces, canceling out freedom, affections, and faith. Avalanches moved by Satan out of hatred for God.”
396 See May 25.
397 Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-22.
398 Matthew 6:10.