Once I read an interesting article that compared our will to the Mint; as the Mint makes coins, so our will makes coins. Our will makes the coins of good deeds, and we make those coins to buy heaven and achieve holiness. To buy heaven, our coins should be genuine and not counterfeit or fake.
There are coins that seem to be made out of gold or silver, but they are actually made of fake gold or silver. The same happens with the coins of our will; we make coins that do not have the proper alloy and are good for nothing, that is, works that seem good but have twisted ends: alms that are given out of vanity; devotions that are moved by pride; works of charity that have a double intention, etc. We can say that the material of our coins depends on the virtue of our action.
In money, there can be coins that do not have the right image on it, and we can also make coins with the wrong image. Sometimes our coins have the image of our own will or, even worse, the image of the devil rather than the true image, which should be God’s Will. St. Ambrose says, “Wipe out, erase from the coin of your soul the image of the devil and put on it the image of Christ.”
However, there is a difference between the coins made by a Mint and the coins made by our will. The coins made by a Mint have all the same material and same image. For example, dimes are made with a material and a fixed image; once in a while, the Mint changes the image on it. The coins of our will can always change both the material and the image. The more virtuous our action is, the better the material of our coins. The more my action matches with God’s Will, the more perfect the image on it will be.
Once Mother Seton said to her sisters: “The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the Will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner He wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is His Will.” That is good advice for anyone who wants to achieve holiness and reach heaven.
