Special Heavenly Rewards

The essential reward of heaven is called the aurea, that is, the golden crown. All the blessed have this aurea. Now, it seems that some saints-by reason of the special type of victory they won in saving their souls: by martyrdom, by virginity, by notable teaching of the truths of faith-have a special crown or aureola in addition to the aurea.Aureola means a little golden crown; sometimes it is called nimbus or halo. Christian art often depicts any saint, and even our Lord, with the nimbus or halo. But the precise meaning of aureola is not something general and to be attributed to all the blessed, but something special, bestowed in recognition of a particular excellence, on certain saints.

In addition to the aurea, which all the blessed possess, and also in addition to the aureola which certain saints have, there is a special gift called fruit which belongs as a reward to certain saints. We may say: (a) the aurea is the joy that all the blessed have in God, who is their reward exceeding great; (b) the aureola is the special joy that some saints have in the perfection of their works done on earth; (c) fruit is a special joy that some saints have in the disposition, that marked their lives on earth, to be fertile fields for the seed of God’s word.

The fruit of fertility for the implanted seed of God’s word belongs especially to those saints whose lives were characterized by continence.

Scripture (Matt. 13:8) tells of the planting of the seed of God’s words in human souls, and “they brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty fold, and somethirtyfold.” The three fruits fittingly apply to the three types of continence, namely, the continence of virgins, thecontinence of widowed people, and the continence of married people. The continence of virgins is complete and perpetual and receives the fruit called “a hundredfold.” The continenceof widowed people is like that of virgins, but was not always so;it receives the fruit called “sixty fold.” Thecontinence of married people is the lawful use of sex under the rule of reason and God’s law; it receives the fruit called “thirty fold.”

Fruit, then, is the special heavenly reward of virgins,widowed persons, and faithful spouses. Virginity has both fruit andaureola. The virginity that has the reward of the aureola is notthe virginity of the innocent who never knew temptation, but is rather the award for shining victory in the war where “the flesh lusteth against the spirit” (Gal. 5:17).

An aureola is assigned to martyrs. For martyrdom is the gaining of victory under special difficulties. It is a notable triumph. And so it has its special little crown.

Those who have been notable teachers of God’s truth have gained much, not alone for themselves but for all whoprofitably heard their teaching or preaching. Such teachers are the saints called holy doctors. A special reward or aureola rightly marks their victory over error.

Since the aureola is the mark and reward ofthose who shared the victory of Christ, it is not properly assigned or ascribed to him who won the perfect victory, that is,to Christ himself. The aurea belongs to the perfect humanity of our Lord. But the aureola would indicate rather a failure to award Christ his due than to express his perfection. The aureola means participation in the work of Christ; it means conforming by grace to the perfection of Christ. But Christ does not merely participate or conform with himself and his perfect works.

Angels have not an aureola; at least, not inthe sense in which this award is found in certain saints. For an angel has by its nature as confirmed in grace what the haloedsaints have by reason of their brave warring against contrary forces.

The aureola is a reward possessed by the soul of a saint; it is not an ornament to appear in the risen body,although the risen body may be the more beautiful by reason of the overflow of joy from the aureola. The symbols in Christian art which indicate the aurea (glow of light about the head) or the aureola (circle of gold, halo) are not actual pictures of these heavenly rewards, for, as we have said, the rewards are spiritual.

It is suitable that aureolas should be assigned to virgins, martyrs, and doctors. These three types of saints represent, each in its own way, a special and notableconformity with Christ.

Speaking generally, or in the abstract, we may say that the ranking order of the aureolas seems to be this:first and greatest, that of martyrs; second, that of doctors;third, that of virgins. Yet in concrete particular cases, a virgin’s aureola might be more excellent than a martyr’s, or a doctor’s aureola might be greaterthan that of either virgin or martyr.

The rank of the aureola in excellence depends, in individual cases, upon the greatness of the act or reality (with all implied in it -purposes, circumstances, and conditions) for which the aureola is conferred as a reward.