Does God owe us anything?

[Joybearer]

There is no theological basis but I’m sure some of us here can give a more wholesome picture than I can. Just stating my opinions and doubts for discussion.

So here we go: He created us, upon our birth, we automatically become sinners due to original sin. For those of us who are cradle, we get baptized and cleansed of our sins, we live our lives as we are and have bumps and we fall, we commit certain acts that are objectively sinful, we have to go for confession and the sins are are forgiven yet we must do reparation for those acts committed, striving to not sin again, eventually we hope to be back to God whom we are created for…An extremely concise life of an average Catholic.

I have some questions, first, since we didn’t ask to be created, why are we liable for the sins of our ancestors? Second, so many people who are going through immense pain and certainly do not want their lives to be this way, so when these people react to the circumstances negatively, how is it their fault to they ought to be damned? Third, Why is everything about God?

So essentially, we were brought into life with a huge debt that we can’t pay and we didn’t owe by our merits, we are brought here to suffer and we can’t blame God nor ask why for any situation that arises from nature, if we react negatively, we risk being damned to hell. In fact, we owed Jesus so much that the only way to repay is by the total surrender of ourselves. That basically means, if we want to be happy and fulfilled, we have to be trapped in this process, no alternatives. Period. Do or die.

How is this good? It’s such a cynical reality!

My apologies in advance if these questions have been answered again and again in these forums. I look forward to your response. Thank you.

 

[Joybearer]

Oh, I forgot my thread title, so doesn’t mean that God owes us instead since He was the one who brought forth our existence?

 

[Oren]

There is no theological basis but I’m sure some of us here can give a more wholesome picture than I can. Just stating my opinions and doubts for discussion.

So here we go: He created us, upon our birth, we automatically become sinners due to original sin. For those of us who are cradle, we get baptized and cleansed of our sins, we live our lives as we are and have bumps and we fall, we commit certain acts that are objectively sinful, we have to go for confession and the sins are are forgiven yet we must do reparation for those acts committed, striving to not sin again, eventually we hope to be back to God whom we are created for…An extremely concise life of an average Catholic.

I have some questions, first, since we didn’t ask to be created, why are we liable for the sins of our ancestors? Second, so many people who are going through immense pain and certainly do not want their lives to be this way, so when these people react to the circumstances negatively, how is it their fault to they ought to be damned? Third, Why is everything about God?

So essentially, we were brought into life with a huge debt that we can’t pay and we didn’t owe by our merits, we are brought here to suffer and we can’t blame God nor ask why for any situation that arises from nature, if we react negatively, we risk being damned to hell. In fact, we owed Jesus so much that the only way to repay is by the total surrender of ourselves. That basically means, if we want to be happy and fulfilled, we have to be trapped in this process, no alternatives. Period. Do or die.

How is this good? It’s such a cynical reality!

My apologies in advance if these questions have been answered again and again in these forums. I look forward to your response. Thank you.

Well, these are good questions and I’ve wondered about them myself. Here’s how I explain it to myself.

There is a reality. If you jump off a cliff, you die. It’s the same thing with supernatural reality. We just can’t see it as clearly. But, the physical reality we see is meant to show us truths about the supernatural reality.

So, if you are born to two parents with genetic deficiencies, say hemophelia or something, then you get the disease. No one can deny that. Is it your fault? No. Do you still have the disease? Yep. That’s how original sin works, only supernaturally. It is not our ‘fault’ that we are born into original sin, but do we still have it? Yep.

Now think about it. Will you ever be healed of that genetic disease in this day and age? Nope. But, will you ever be healed of original sin. Yes, all you gotta do is be baptized.
So, Jesus has made the supernatural reality better than the physical reality.

If you decide to drive recklessly will you get into an accident? Most likely. Say you do, and you break your back and you get crippled. Is that your fault? Yep. Will you ever be healed? Probably not.

So, if you decide to sin, say, fornication, and you are crippled (killed really) with mortal sin. Is that your fault? Yep. Will you ever be healed? Yes, if you just repent and go to confession, most certainly.

So, we see how Jesus has paid our debt, from original sin to moral sin and made our lives even better than the physical world would represent to us is our ‘real’ lot in life.

Now going to hell is like trying to fly off a cliff. We can’t fly naturally. We know this from looking at reality. We need other things to help us fly, like a balloon or a helicopter or whatever. But, what if we decide to ignore the reality, or reject the reality and jump off the cliff? Will we die? Yes. Will we come back to life? No. This is the same with going to hell. If we decide to do things our own way supernaturally speaking, or reject those realities, then we have no power to ‘fly’ to heaven, and we simply fall off the cliff eventually. This is what Jesus means when He says ‘many choose the broad way to destruction’. Why is it broad? Because people shut their eyes to the supernatural reality. Jesus was always speaking of being blind. This is why. However, God gives EVERYONE enough Grace so that they may see the supernatural reality and avoid the cliff. It may seem to us that so many people are choosing hell, but that is just because it is true and Jesus said it would happen. It isn’t because of Him, it’s because of their free choice.

That’s how I tend to look at things. Yes, we did not ask to be created, but do you ever look at your parents and blame them for getting married and having a kid? Do you think your parents hated you, or do you think they wanted good things for you, even knowing there would be bad things too? We should look at God like that, but of course, with an even higher concept of His love and good will toward us.

Everything is about God because He is being itself. Without God there would literally be nothing. Not even black space, not even a vacuum in space. No space, no vacuum, no nothing. He is being, we take our being from Him because He gave it to us as.

CS Lewis’ book ‘The Problem of Pain’ is a good one to read on these questions. He was a protestant so keep an eye out, but it is a good book. I don’t recall having any problems with it. His other book ‘The Great Divorce’ gives me some problems, but it gives some good ideas. Depending on your knowledge of the faith (such as hell is eternal and not temporary which is kind of espoused in the great divorce) then you can get some good ideas from that book as well.

 

[Joybearer]

Well, these are good questions and I’ve wondered about them myself. Here’s how I explain it to myself.

There is a reality. If you jump off a cliff, you die. It’s the same thing with supernatural reality. We just can’t see it as clearly. But, the physical reality we see is meant to show us truths about the supernatural reality.

So, if you are born to two parents with genetic deficiencies, say hemophelia or something, then you get the disease. No one can deny that. Is it your fault? No. Do you still have the disease? Yep. That’s how original sin works, only supernaturally. It is not our ‘fault’ that we are born into original sin, but do we still have it? Yep.

Now think about it. Will you ever be healed of that genetic disease in this day and age? Nope. But, will you ever be healed of original sin. Yes, all you gotta do is be baptized.
So, Jesus has made the supernatural reality better than the physical reality.

If you decide to drive recklessly will you get into an accident? Most likely. Say you do, and you break your back and you get crippled. Is that your fault? Yep. Will you ever be healed? Probably not.

So, if you decide to sin, say, fornication, and you are crippled (killed really) with mortal sin. Is that your fault? Yep. Will you ever be healed? Yes, if you just repent and go to confession, most certainly.

So, we see how Jesus has paid our debt, from original sin to moral sin and made our lives even better than the physical world would represent to us is our ‘real’ lot in life.

Now going to hell is like trying to fly off a cliff. We can’t fly naturally. We know this from looking at reality. We need other things to help us fly, like a balloon or a helicopter or whatever. But, what if we decide to ignore the reality, or reject the reality and jump off the cliff? Will we die? Yes. Will we come back to life? No. This is the same with going to hell. If we decide to do things our own way supernaturally speaking, or reject those realities, then we have no power to ‘fly’ to heaven, and we simply fall off the cliff eventually. This is what Jesus means when He says ‘many choose the broad way to destruction’. Why is it broad? Because people shut their eyes to the supernatural reality. Jesus was always speaking of being blind. This is why. However, God gives EVERYONE enough Grace so that they may see the supernatural reality and avoid the cliff. It may seem to us that so many people are choosing hell, but that is just because it is true and Jesus said it would happen. It isn’t because of Him, it’s because of their free choice.

That’s how I tend to look at things. Yes, we did not ask to be created, but do you ever look at your parents and blame them for getting married and having a kid? Do you think your parents hated you, or do you think they wanted good things for you, even knowing there would be bad things too? We should look at God like that, but of course, with an even higher concept of His love and good will toward us.

Everything is about God because He is being itself. Without God there would literally be nothing. Not even black space, not even a vacuum in space. No space, no vacuum, no nothing. He is being, we take our being from Him because He gave it to us as.

CS Lewis’ book ‘The Problem of Pain’ is a good one to read on these questions. He was a protestant so keep an eye out, but it is a good book. I don’t recall having any problems with it. His other book ‘The Great Divorce’ gives me some problems, but it gives some good ideas. Depending on your knowledge of the faith (such as hell is eternal and not temporary which is kind of espoused in the great divorce) then you can get some good ideas from that book as well.

Wow! great answers, even when I look at the “ask the apologist” forum, I don’t see answers this good. I’m sure our apologists are great and busy people but pardon me to say that it feels that most times their answers do not quench my doubts.

I do have some follow up questions on your analogies, in regards to original sin and personal sins, you have answered very brilliantly . However, pertaining to God being a parent, I have heard it many times over as a Catholic. I understand that God permit bad things for our growth and strengthening, I can understand that. What I cannot understand is that a loving parent, omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent will see that His beloved child walk blindly off a cliff(hope I’m wrong but it seems like most of the world is bent on traveling on a road off that very cliff).

Furthermore, there are some lives that are very very tough. Putting those extreme cases aside for the time being, starting with something light but very rampant in the society nowadays. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of people who are socially inapt are unable to enjoy fruitful friendships nor are they able to have a companion or partner in life. I have seen people in their 50s and 60s but are still alone with hardly anyone to call a friend. Not to mention those with chronic pain, disfigured, down with dozens of diseases. Would any parent allow that to happen? Wouldn’t a parent want to at an instant take away the pain and loneliness of his/her child? The problem of pain and evil is very real and it’s hard to reconcile that with a loving God, all the more an omnibenevolent one. Just looking around these forums tells me that many Catholics are suffering some form of depression or pain, they seem to have been struggling for ages with no way out. I’m sure any half-way decent human parent wouldn’t do that to their children? And if a negative reaction to such lives will lead to damnation, whose fault will it be?

 

[Joybearer]

cont…

I’m naive to say this but I’m gonna ask it anyway, wouldn’t it be best that from the very beginning, God did not create Lucifer or after falling, extinguish his life force or take away his powers or even at least lock up the gates of hell?

P.s. I’m genuinely interested in asking these questions, in no point in time I’m trying to damage the church nor waver anyone’s faith. I’m not a troll, just a Catholic with many many questions.

p.p.s I heard C.S. Lewis nearly converted to Catholicism, no idea what happened that prevented it though. Anyway, thanks for the recommendation, will seek out that book.

 

[Oren]

Wow! great answers, even when I look at the “ask the apologist” forum, I don’t see answers this good. I’m sure our apologists are great and busy people but pardon me to say that it feels that most times their answers do not quench my doubts.

I do have some follow up questions on your analogies, in regards to original sin and personal sins, you have answered very brilliantly . However, pertaining to God being a parent, I have heard it many times over as a Catholic. I understand that God permit bad things for our growth and strengthening, I can understand that. What I cannot understand is that a loving parent, omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent will see that His beloved child walk blindly off a cliff(hope I’m wrong but it seems like most of the world is bent on traveling on a road off that very cliff).

Furthermore, there are some lives that are very very tough. Putting those extreme cases aside for the time being, starting with something light but very rampant in the society nowadays. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of people who are socially inapt are unable to enjoy fruitful friendships nor are they able to have a companion or partner in life. I have seen people in their 50s and 60s but are still alone with hardly anyone to call a friend. Not to mention those with chronic pain, disfigured, down with dozens of diseases. Would any parent allow that to happen? Wouldn’t a parent want to at an instant take away the pain and loneliness of his/her child? The problem of pain and evil is very real and it’s hard to reconcile that with a loving God, all the more an omnibenevolent one. Just looking around these forums tells me that many Catholics are suffering some form of depression or pain, they seem to have been struggling for ages with no way out. I’m sure any half-way decent human parent wouldn’t do that to their children? And if a negative reaction to such lives will lead to damnation, whose fault will it be?

Thanks I appreciate it.

As to your questions.

Let’s go with the parent analogy. Say that a parent has raised his kid right. Say the parent was perfect. He did absolutely everything right for his kid to the utmost of his ability and power. However, his son still has the free will to do whatever he wants. Right? The parent, no matter how loving, benevolent and even all powerful (in terms of this analogy is pointing to God) cannot FORCE his son to do anything. Say this great father raised his kid up right and the minute the kid went out the door he started doing drugs because of his friends bad influence or whatever reason. No matter what the father did, loving him, exhorting him, praying for him, reprimanding him, the kid still is a drug addict and stops talking to his father altogether due to the influence of his friends and the drugs. Now, what can the father do? Keep praying, keep loving…that’s about it. If the son refuses all contact with his father, what can the father do? Yes, God is all good, loving and omnipotent. However, this does not negate free will. If God gave everyone overwhelming knowledge of His reality, this would negate free will. Above all free will is a must because without free will we cannot love.

We have to believe that God does every single thing He can to help us, His children. It may not seem that way to us if we have family members who are non believers who seem in every other way to be ‘good’ people. But, we have to trust in God, that He loves those people more than we do and is doing absolutely everything in His power to save them. We cannot look into the mystery of another person’s heart, and even our own hearts can be hidden from us at times. So we need to judge rightly. It is surely a temptation to start to believe that God is leaving people to their own devices and not giving them the help they need to come to believe in Him and be saved. I have thought this myself many times because none of my family members are believers. But, if I came to believe, even though I was raised with no faith, then surely they could come to believe too, if only they would start seeking God and talking to Him and listening to His pleas. Jesus says, seek and ye shall find. If the son does not seek out the Father and begin talking with Him again, what can the Father do? He cannot force his way into his son’s life. Even on a natural level this is true. If God Himself ‘forced’ Himself into someone’s life, this would most assuredly crush the person’s free will.

About pain and suffering. This is of course a much more emotional and complicated question for many reasons. ‘The Problem of Pain’ deals with this very brilliantly in my opinion. The reason why there is pain and suffering is because of free will. If we have free will, then there is the possibility of sin, which equals pain and suffering. God created the fallen angels with free will too. He loves them just as much as anyone. But they abused their free will and fell. As to the question, well, why did God create them if He knew they would fall? This is a very hard thing to come to grips with. But, this is the way I think of it. God created the best of all worlds that could be created. Remember, God wanted to create a universe with beings of free will. This necessarily means that sin was a possibility. God created the best possible world that could include beings with free will. Every single thing, even Lucifer and Judas and Jesus dying on the cross and any bad things you can think, was the best possible world that could be created with free beings who were capable of love. That’s my conclusion.

 

[Joybearer]

Thanks I appreciate it.

As to your questions.

Let’s go with the parent analogy. Say that a parent has raised his kid right. Say the parent was perfect. He did absolutely everything right for his kid to the utmost of his ability and power. However, his son still has the free will to do whatever he wants. Right? The parent, no matter how loving, benevolent and even all powerful (in terms of this analogy is pointing to God) cannot FORCE his son to do anything. Say this great father raised his kid up right and the minute the kid went out the door he started doing drugs because of his friends bad influence or whatever reason. No matter what the father did, loving him, exhorting him, praying for him, reprimanding him, the kid still is a drug addict and stops talking to his father altogether due to the influence of his friends and the drugs. Now, what can the father do? Keep praying, keep loving…that’s about it. If the son refuses all contact with his father, what can the father do? Yes, God is all good, loving and omnipotent. However, this does not negate free will. If God gave everyone overwhelming knowledge of His reality, this would negate free will. Above all free will is a must because without free will we cannot love.

We have to believe that God does every single thing He can to help us, His children. It may not seem that way to us if we have family members who are non believers who seem in every other way to be ‘good’ people. But, we have to trust in God, that He loves those people more than we do and is doing absolutely everything in His power to save them. We cannot look into the mystery of another person’s heart, and even our own hearts can be hidden from us at times. So we need to judge rightly. It is surely a temptation to start to believe that God is leaving people to their own devices and not giving them the help they need to come to believe in Him and be saved. I have thought this myself many times because none of my family members are believers. But, if I came to believe, even though I was raised with no faith, then surely they could come to believe too, if only they would start seeking God and talking to Him and listening to His pleas. Jesus says, seek and ye shall find. If the son does not seek out the Father and begin talking with Him again, what can the Father do? He cannot force his way into his son’s life. Even on a natural level this is true. If God Himself ‘forced’ Himself into someone’s life, this would most assuredly crush the person’s free will.

About pain and suffering. This is of course a much more emotional and complicated question for many reasons. ‘The Problem of Pain’ deals with this very brilliantly in my opinion. The reason why there is pain and suffering is because of free will. If we have free will, then there is the possibility of sin, which equals pain and suffering. God created the fallen angels with free will too. He loves them just as much as anyone. But they abused their free will and fell. As to the question, well, why did God create them if He knew they would fall? This is a very hard thing to come to grips with. But, this is the way I think of it. God created the best of all worlds that could be created. Remember, God wanted to create a universe with beings of free will. This necessarily means that sin was a possibility. God created the best possible world that could include beings with free will. Every single thing, even Lucifer and Judas and Jesus dying on the cross and any bad things you can think, was the best possible world that could be created with free beings who were capable of love. That’s my conclusion.

Where did you get all these wisdom from??? I assure you that I’m not a sycophant. These answers are easy to understand and tough to refute! Those analogies are truly sublime. Can you lend me your mind for a week or two while I engage my atheist and protestant friends in dialogue?

However, isn’t it a problem to say that while Lucifer, being one of the highest ranking angelic beings, who also has beatific vision, committed the first sin in God’s metaphysical influence? That just sounds impossible, it’s like Einstein in the perfect clarity of his mind messing up the answer to 2 + 2.

Also, if God loves everyone just the same, why are angels created in only spirit whereas we’re embodied, i.e. we have to suffer so much more while they are created semi-eternal, enjoying heavenly bliss, while we are embodied and have to suffer. Do you not think that God plays favoritism? Even on the Earth, some are given so much and was given more and more and others have little and more is taken away from them day by day. In that case, wouldn’t it be much easier for those who are given more to respond better than those whose things are taken away from them even if they have not much to begin with?

When a child is only left with a slice of bread for his entire week, an invisible hand reaches in and takes away the bread. What kind of parent is that? (despite the child praying for more). Sounds like a really mean bully.

 

[Cricket2]

Oh, I forgot my thread title, so doesn’t mean that God owes us instead since He was the one who brought forth our existence?

God owes us nothing. He provided the opportunity for Adam and Eve to live in obedience to Him and they decided to disobey. They sinned and we inherited that sinfulness from them. I think of it as “Spiritual Genetics.”

God could have stopped all live, but he didn’t. All of us are created out of His love, and we all inherit the sin of our First Parents. Each of us has a different burden to carry, and perhaps that burden is how we can best regain favor with God. Rather than despising the sufferings of our life we might do better to see them as a gift to regain our salvation.

Now this is not to say that I have never felt wronged by my sufferings. But that is the challenge; trying to keep in mind their purpose and cause. They can be used by God for our betterment and the salvation of others. It is not His fault we sin, that is a choice we make throughout life.

 

[Joybearer]

God owes us nothing. He provided the opportunity for Adam and Eve to live in obedience to Him and they decided to disobey. They sinned and we inherited that sinfulness from them. I think of it as “Spiritual Genetics.”

God could have stopped all live, but he didn’t. All of us are created out of His love, and we all inherit the sin of our First Parents. Each of us has a different burden to carry, and perhaps that burden is how we can best regain favor with God. Rather than despising the sufferings of our life we might do better to see them as a gift to regain our salvation.

Now this is not to say that I have never felt wronged by my sufferings. But that is the challenge; trying to keep in mind their purpose and cause. They can be used by God for our betterment and the salvation of others. It is not His fault we sin, that is a choice we make throughout life.

thanks for your insight!

Why doesn’t God owe us? Taking the damned souls for example, He brought forth creatures whom He clearly knows from the very beginning to the end, at every instant that in this world(the best there is) these people will choose to go hell. Due to weakness in character, external stimuli, etc. He didn’t even have to extinguish lives, just not create those that are likely to be damned.

And no matter how you argue it, He created a being far superior to us who seeks our destruction along with legions of his underlings each far superior in intellect and strength than any human. Say you’re a parent, and you see your eldest son, huge frame rugby player, beating up your helpless new born. Would you not separate them? I.e., lock up the gates of hell.

It’s probably not His fault that we sin, but it doesn’t mean that He shouldn’t take any responsibility for creating us so weak and so susceptible to falling. You say genetics, but the disease was cured when we’re baptised, so why are we still so weak?

My intention wasn’t to complain about sufferings, or demean them, perhaps it’s analogous to a parent restricting candies and feeding healthy greens to their children. But some people are fed dung throughout their lives(pardon my language).

The portion about regaining favor with God through our burdens sounds questionable theologically. I’m not sure I agree with that. Sounds like those faith + good works = salvation misconceptions that the protestants are attacking us about.

 

[vames]

All of us are created out of His love, and we all inherit the sin of our First Parents. Each of us has a different burden to carry, and perhaps that burden is how we can best regain favor with God. Rather than despising the sufferings of our life we might do better to see them as a gift to regain our salvation.

Then Jesus’ suffering (supposedly to regain God’s benevolence towards humankind) must have been very insignificant, since we have to “regain favor with God” by our sufferings. Not to mention that it implies the idea of a God who is so persistently angry with us, that He enjoys seeing us suffering.

You say that “we all inherit the sin of our First Parents”, but Adam and Eve were forgiven and are in heaven, judging by their mention in the calendar of saints, while countless generations of children and adults have suffered and continue to suffer now (why? to satisfy such a persistent anger of God towards humankind?). Adam and Eve weren’t disabled, homeless, jobless, weren’t tortured, imprisoned or killed, had a pretty comfortable life and a dignified death.

 

[Oren]

Where did you get all these wisdom from??? I assure you that I’m not a sycophant. These answers are easy to understand and tough to refute! Those analogies are truly sublime. Can you lend me your mind for a week or two while I engage my atheist and protestant friends in dialogue?

However, isn’t it a problem to say that while Lucifer, being one of the highest ranking angelic beings, who also has beatific vision, committed the first sin in God’s metaphysical influence? That just sounds impossible, it’s like Einstein in the perfect clarity of his mind messing up the answer to 2 + 2.

Also, if God loves everyone just the same, why are angels created in only spirit whereas we’re embodied, i.e. we have to suffer so much more while they are created semi-eternal, enjoying heavenly bliss, while we are embodied and have to suffer. Do you not think that God plays favoritism? Even on the Earth, some are given so much and was given more and more and others have little and more is taken away from them day by day. In that case, wouldn’t it be much easier for those who are given more to respond better than those whose things are taken away from them even if they have not much to begin with?

When a child is only left with a slice of bread for his entire week, an invisible hand reaches in and takes away the bread. What kind of parent is that? (despite the child praying for more). Sounds like a really mean bully.

I don’t know, I’ve just studied a ton and read tons of saints and tried to pray over the years I’d be happy to help any way I can.

The fallen angels never had the beatific vision. I have read that in many different places from Theologians. They were created without access to the beatific vision and were given a test, just like we are being tested in this life. There is speculation as to what that test was. The one I agree with is that they were shown by infused knowledge that they would have to serve Jesus Christ in his human nature and they rebelled against serving a human, even if that human was God because human nature is lower than angelic nature.

Even though our human nature is lower in nature than angelic nature, Jesus Christ by becoming a human being has elevated our destiny to be above that of even the angels. This is because if we are baptized, we are in the body of Christ. This means that we are closer to God than the angels. When we die and if we make it to heaven, we will partake in the divine nature itself, being divinized, because we will be in the body of Christ in heaven and Christ is God Himself. You can think of Our Blessed Mother as the greatest example. She is higher than any angel. She is the Queen of angels. We get more merit and a higher glory in heaven, and become partakers of the divine nature because we have suffered with Jesus in His body in this life. It might have been St. Francis de Sales (I can’t recall at the moment) who said that if the angels could envy us anything it would be that we can suffer for God.

Here is a verse from scripture that speaks to this: 1Corinthians 6:2-3.

"Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?  And if  you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial  cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the  things of this life."

As for how much grace we are given as individuals, God does give some people more grace than others. However, I think this has a lot to do with how we respond to the first Grace we are given. I can’t think of any clear theology on this right now, but it is my opinion. Obviously some people get a lot more by God’s clear will. We can think of Our Lady as the biggest example. But, she had a great role to play that none of us will. She is the Mother of God. You can think of any saint like that. God needs to raise up certain people to help others because God wants us to help each other. So, if He gives certain people more grace, like say, St. Francis of Assisi, it is not for St. Francis’ sake alone, but so he could start his order and help those souls, and also to pray for so many people and give so many people the example that he did for generations. So some of his may have a much more humble role to play in salvation history, but that is just how it works. Some are great and help so many, and others are humble and cannot help as many. But remember too, the humble shall be exalted.