Although in most of you, beloved brethren, there is a resolute mind and a
firm faith and a devout spirit, which is not disturbed at the numbers in
the present mortality, but like a strong and unmoving rock breaks rather
the turbulent attacks of the world and the violent waves of the age and is
itself not broken, and is not vanquished but tried by temptations, yet
because I observe that among the people, some either through weakness of
spirit, or littleness of faith, or the charm of life in the world, or
weakness of sex, or, what is worse, because of a wandering from the truth,
are standing less firmly and are not revealing the divine and invincible
strength of their hearts, the matter must not be ignored or passed over in
silence, but, so far as our weak power suffices, with full strength, and
with a discourse drawn from the Lord's text, the cowardice of a
luxury-loving mind must be checked and one who has already begun to be a
man of God and Christ must be considered worthy of God and Christ.
Chapter 2
For, beloved brethren, he who serves as a soldier of God, who, being
stationed in the camp of heaven, already hopes for the divine things, ought
to recognize himself, so that we should have no fear, no dread at the
storms and whirlwinds of the world, since the Lord predicted that these
things would come through the exhortation of His provident voice,
instructing and teaching and preparing and strengthening the people of His
church to all endurance of things to come. He foretold and prophesied that
wars and famine and earthquakes and pestilence would arise in the various
places, and, that an unexpected and new fear of destructive agencies might
not shake us, He forewarned that adversity would increase more and more in
the last times. Behold the things which were spoken of are coming to pass,
and since the things which were foretold are coming to pass, there will
follow also whatsoever were promised, as the Lord Himself promises, saying:
'When you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God
is at hand.' The kingdom of God, beloved brethren, has begun to be at hand;
the reward of life and the joy of eternal salvation and perpetual happiness
and the possession of paradise once lost are now coming with the passing of
the world; now the things of heaven are succeeding those of earth, and
great things small, and eternal things, transitory. What place is there
here for anxiety and worry? Who in the midst of these things is fearful and
sad save he who lacks hope and faith? For it is for him to fear death who
is unwilling to go to Christ. It is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ
who does not believe that he is beginning to reign with Christ.
Chapter 3
It is written that 'the just man liveth by faith.' If you are a just man
and live by faith, if you truly believe (in God), why do you, who are
destined to be with Christ and secure in the promise of the Lord, not
rejoice that you are called to Christ and be glad that you are free from
the devil? Finally, Simeon, the just man who was truly just, who with full
faith kept the commandments of God, when the answer had been given him from
heaven that he would not die before he had seen Christ, and when Christ as
an infant had come into the temple with His mother, knew in spirit that
Christ was now born, concerning whom it had been foretold to him before,
and on seeing Him he knew that he himself would quickly die. Happy,
therefore, at the death that was now at hand and untroubled at the
approaching summons, he took the child into his hands and blessing God, he
cried out and said: 'Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according
to thy word in peace, because my eyes have seen thy salvation,' proving
surely and bearing witness that then do the servants of God have peace,
then do they have a free, then a tranquil repose, when we on being released
from the storms of the world have sought the harbor of our abode and
eternal security, when on this death being accomplished we have to come to
immortality. For that is our peace, that our sure tranquillity, that our
steadfast and firm and everlasting security.
Chapter 4
For the rest, what else is waged daily in the world but a battle against
the devil, but a struggle with continual onsets against his darts and
weapons? With avarice, with lewdness, with anger, with ambition, we have a
conflict; with the vices of the flesh, with the allurements of the world,
we have a continual and stubborn fight. The mind of man besieged and
surrounded on all sides by the assault of the devil with difficulty opposes
these foes one by one, with difficulty resists them. If avarice is cast to
the ground, lust springs up; if lust is put down, ambition takes its place;
if ambition is disdained, anger provokes, pride puffs up, drunkenness
invites, envy destroys harmony, jealousy severs friendships. You are forced
to curse, which the divine law prohibits; you are compelled to swear, which
is forbidden.
Chapter 5
So many persecutions the mind endures daily, by so many dangers is the
heart beset. And does it delight to remain here long, amidst the devil's
weapons, when we should rather earnestly desire and wish to hasten to
Christ aided by a death coming more speedily, since He Himself instructs
us, saying: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but
the world shall rejoice: you shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall come
into joy?' Who would not long to be free from sorrow? Who would not hurry
to come to joy? Now when our sorrow will come to joy, our Lord Himself
again tells us, saying: 'I will see you again, and your heart shall
rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.' Since, then, to see
Christ is to rejoice, and since none of us can have joy unless he shall see
Christ, what blindness or what madness it is to love the afflictions and
punishments and tears of the world and not rather to hurry to the joy which
can never be taken from us.
Chapter 6
But this happens, beloved brethren, because faith is lacking, because no
one believes those things to be true which God promises, who is truthful
and whose word is eternal and steadfast to those who believe. If an
influential and reputable man were to promise you something, you would have
confidence in his promise and you would not believe that you would be
deceived or cheated by the man who you knew stood by his words and actions.
God is speaking to you, and do you waver faithless in your unbelieving
mind? God promises immortality and eternity to you leaving this world, and
do you doubt? This is not to know God at all. This is to offend Christ, the
Teacher of believing, by the sin of disbelief. This is, though one is in
the Church, not to have faith in the House of Faith.
Chapter 7
What an advantage it is to depart from the world Christ Himself the teacher
of our salvation and welfare makes manifest, who, when His disciples were
sorrowful because He said that He was now about to go away, spoke to them
saying: 'If you loved me you would indeed be glad, because I go to the
Father,' thus teaching and showing that there should be rejoicing rather
than sorrowing when the dear ones whom we love depart from the world. And
mindful of this fact, the blessed Apostle Paul sets this down in his
Epistle and says: 'For to me to live is Christ; and to die is gain,'
counting it the greatest gain to be no longer held by the snares of the
world, to be no longer subject to any sins and faults of the flesh, but,
released from tormenting afflictions and freed from the poisoned jaws of
the devil, to set out, at Christ's summons, for the joy of eternal
salvation.
Chapter 8
Now it troubles some that the infirmity of this disease carries off our
people equally with the pagans, as if a Christian believes to this end,
that, free from contact with evils, he may happily enjoy the world and this
life, and, without having endured all adversities here, may be preserved
for future happiness. It troubles some that we have this mortality in
common with others. But what in this world do we not have in common with
others as long as this flesh, in accordance with the law of our original
birth, still remains common to us? As long as we are here in the world we
are united with the human race in equality of the flesh, we are separated
in spirit. And so, until this corruptible element puts on incorruptibility
and this mortal element receives immortality and the spirit conducts us to
God the Father, the disadvantages of the flesh, whatever they are, we have
in common with the human race. Thus when the earth is barren with scanty
production famine excepts no one; thus when a city has been taken by a
hostile attack, bondage ruins all its inhabitants together; and when clear
skies keep back the rain there is the one drought for all; and when craggy
rocks destroy a ship the shipwreck is common to all on board without
exception; and eye trouble and attacks of fevers and every ailment of the
members we have in common with others as long as this common flesh is borne
in the world.
Chapter 9
Nay, rather, if the Christian recognizes and understands under what
condition, under what law he has believed, he will know that he must labor
more in the world than others, as he must carry on a greater struggle
against the assault of the devil. Divine Scripture teaches and forewarns,
saying: 'Son, when thus comest to the service of God, stand in justice, and
in fear, and prepare thyself for temptation,' and again: 'in thy sorrow
endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience, for gold and silver are tried
in the fire.'
Chapter 10
Thus Job, after the losses of his property, after the deaths of his
children, and after being grievously tormented also by ulcers and worms,
was not vanquished but was tried, who, showing the patience of his devout
mind in the very midst of his afflictions and sufferings says: 'Naked came
I out of my mother's womb, and naked also shall I go under the earth; the
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it seemeth best to the Lord so
is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.' And when his wife also urged
him in impatience at the severity of his suffering to utter something
against God in complaining and hateful language, he answered and said:
'Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women: if we have received good
things at the hand of God shall we not endure the evil? In all these
things which befell him Job sinned not by his lips in the sight of the
Lord.' And, therefore, the Lord God bears witness to him, saying: 'Hast
thou noticed my servant Job? there is no one like him in the earth, a man
without complaint, truthful and serving God.' And Tobias, after his
splendid works, after the many glorious commendations of his mercy, having
suffered blindness of the eyes, fearing and blessing God in his adversity,
by that very affliction of his body increased in praise. And him also his
wife tried to corrupt, saying: 'Where are your acts of clemency? Behold
what you are suffering!' But he steadfast and firm in his fear of God and
armed for all endurance of suffering by the faith of his religion did not
yield in his affliction to the temptations of his weak wife, but deserved
more of God through his greater patience. And afterwards the angel Raphael
praises him and says: 'It is honorable to reveal and confess the works of
God. For when Sara and I prayed I offered the memory of your prayer before
the splendor of God: and because you buried the dead, likewise, and
because you did not hesitate to rise and leave your dinner and you went
and buried the dead, I was sent even to tempt you. And again, God sent me
to cure you and Sara your daughter-in-law: for I am Raphael one of the
seven holy angels who stand and serve before the splendor of God.'
Chapter 11
This endurance the just have always had; this discipline the apostles
maintained from the law of the Lord, not to murmur in adversity, but to
accept bravely and patiently whatever happens in the world, since the
Jewish people always offended in this, that they murmured very frequently
against God, as the Lord God testifies in Numbers, saying: 'Let their
murmuring cease from me and they shall not die." We must not murmur in
adversity, beloved brethren, but must patiently and bravely bear with
whatever happens, since it is written: 'A contrite and humble heart God
does not despise.' In Deuteronomy also the Holy Spirit through Moses
admonishes us, saying: 'The Lord God shall afflict thee and cast famine on
thee and shall examine in thy heart if thou hast kept his precepts well or
not,' and again: 'The Lord your God tempts you to know if you love the Lord
your God with your whole heart and with your whole mind.'
Chapter 12
Thus Abraham pleased God because, in order to please God, he neither feared
to lose his son nor refused to commit parricide. You cannot lose your son
by the law and the chance of mortality, what would you do if you were
ordered to kill your son? The fear of God and faith ought to make you ready
for all things. Though it should be the loss of private property, though it
should be the constant and violent affliction of the members by wasting
diseases, though it should be the mournful and sorrowful tearing away from
wife, from children, from departing dear ones, let not such things be
stumbling blocks for you, but battles; nor let them weaken or crush the
faith of the Christian, but rather let them reveal his valor in the
contest, since every injury arising from present evils should be made light
of through confidence in the blessings to come. Unless a battle has gone
before there cannot be a victory; when a victory has been won in the
conflict of battle, then a crown also is given to the victors. The pilot is
recognized in the storm, in the battle-line the soldier is tested. Light is
the boast when there is no danger; conflict in adversity is the trial of
truth. The tree which is firmly held by a deep root is not shaken by
onrushing winds, and the ship which has been framed with strong joints is
beaten by the waves but is not staved in; and when the threshing floor
treads out the harvest the strong hard grain scorn the winds; the empty
straw is whirled and carried away by the breeze.
Chapter 13
Thus also the Apostle Paul, after shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many
grievous tortures of the flesh and body, says that he was not harassed but
was corrected by adversity, in order that while he was the more heavily
afflicted he might the more truly be tried. There was given to me, he says,
a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me lest I be exalted. For
which thing thrice I besought the Lord, that it might depart from me. And
He said to me: 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect
in infirmity.' When, therefore, some infirmity and weakness and desolation
attacks us, then is our power made perfect, then our faith is crowned, if
though tempted it has stood firm, as it is written: 'The furnace trieth the
potter's vessels, and the trial of affliction just men.' This finally is
the difference between us and the others who do not know God, that they
complain and murmur in adversity, while adversity does not turn us from the
truth of virtue and faith, but proves us in suffering.
Chapter 14
That now the bowels loosened into a flux exhaust the strength of the body,
that a fever contracted in the very marrow of the bones breaks out into
ulcers of the throat, that the intestines are shaken by continual vomiting,
that the blood-shot eyes burn, that the feet of some or certain parts of
their members are cut away by the infection of diseased putrefaction, that,
by a weakness developing through the losses and injuries of the body,
either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing impaired, or the sight
blinded, all this contributes to the proof of faith.' What greatness of
soul it is to fight with the powers of the mind unshaken against so many
attacks of devastation and death, what sublimity to stand erect amidst the
ruins of the human race and not to lie prostrate with those who have no
hope in God, and to rejoice rather and embrace the gift of the occasion,
which, while we are firmly expressing our faith, and having endured
sufferings, are advancing to Christ by the narrow way of Christ, we should
receive as the reward of His way and faith, He himself being our judge! Let
him certainly be afraid to die who, not having been reborn of water and the
spirit is delivered up to the fires of hell. Let him be afraid to die who
is not listed under the cross and passion of Christ. Let him be afraid to
die who will pass from this death to a second death. Let him be afraid to
die whom, on departing from the world, the eternal flame will torment with
everlasting punishments. Let him be afraid to die to whom this is granted
by a longer delay, that his tortures and groans meanwhile may be deferred.
Chapter 15
Many of us are dying in this mortality, that is many of us are being freed
from the world. This mortality is a bane to the Jews and pagans and enemies
of Christ; to the servants of God it is a salutary departure. As to the
fact that, without any discrimination in the human race, the just also are
dying with the unjust, it is not for you to think that the destruction is a
common one for both the evil and the good. The just are called to
refreshment, the unjust are carried off to torture; protection is more
quickly given to the faithful; punishment to the faithless. We are
improvident, beloved brethren, and ungrateful for divine favors and we do
not recognize what is being granted us. Behold the virgins are departing in
peace, going safely with their glory, not fearing the threats of the
antichrist and his corruption's and his brothels. Boys are escaping the
danger of their unsettled age; they are coming happily to the reward of
their continency and innocence. No longer does the delicate matron dread
the racks, having by a speedy death gained escape from the fear of
persecution and the hands and tortures of the hangman. Through their panic
at the mortality and the occasion the fearful are aroused, the negligent
are contrained, the slothful are stimulated, the deserters are compelled to
return, the pagans are forced to believe, the old members of the faithful
are called to rest, for the battle a fresh and numerous army of greater
strength is being gathered, which, entering service in the time of the
mortality, will fight without fear of death when the battle comes.
Chapter 16
What a significance, beloved brethren, all this has! How suitable, how
necessary it is that this plague and pestilence, which seems horrible and
deadly, searches out the justice of each and every one and examines the
minds of the human race; whether the well care for the sick, whether
relatives dutifully love their kinsmen as they should, whether masters show
compassion to their ailing slaves, whether physicians do not desert the
afflicted begging their help, whether the violent repress their violence,
whether the greedy, even through the fear of death, quench the ever
insatiable fire of their raging avarice, whether the proud bend their
necks, whether the shameless soften their effrontery, whether the rich,
even when their dear ones are perishing and they are about to die without
heirs, bestow and give something! Although this mortality has contributed
nothing else, it has especially accomplished this for Christians and
servants of God, that we have begun gladly to seek martyrdom while we are
learning not to fear death. These are trying exercises for us, not deaths;
they give to the mind the glory of fortitude; by contempt of death they
prepare for the crown.
Chapter 17
But perhaps someone may object and say: 'Now in the present mortality this
is a source of sorrow to me that I who had been prepared for confession and
had dedicated myself with my whole heart and with all my courage to the
endurance of suffering, am deprived of my martyrdom, since I am being
forestalled by death.' In the first place, martyrdom is not in your power
but in the giving of God, and you cannot say that you have lost what you do
not know whether you deserved to receive. Then, secondly, God is a searcher
of the reins and heart and the observer and judge of hidden things; He sees
and praises and approves you. And He who perceives that your virtue ready
will give a reward for virtue. Had Cain already killed his brother when he
was offering his gift to God? And yet God in His foresight condemned
beforehand the murder contemplated in his mind. Just as in that instance
the evil thought and pernicious design was foreseen by a provident God, so
also in the case of the servants of God among whom confession is
contemplated and martyrdom is conceived in the mind, the intention
dedicated to good is crowned, with God as judge. It is one thing for the
intention to be lacking for martyrdom; it is another thing for martyrdom to
have been lacking for the intention. Such as the Lord finds you when He
summons, such likewise also does He judge you, since He himself bears
witness and says: 'and all the churches shall know that I am the searcher
of reins and heart.' For God does not ask for our blood but our faith; for
neither Abraham nor Isaac nor Jacob was put to death, but, nevertheless,
honored for the merits of their faith and righteousness, they have deserved
to be first among the patriarchs, and to their feast is gathered whosoever
is found faithful and just and praiseworthy.
Chapter 18
We should remember that we ought to do not our will but God's will, in
accordance with the prayer which the Lord has ordered us to say daily. How
absurd it is and how perverse that, while we ask that the will of God be
done, when God calls us and summons us from this world, we do not at once
obey the command of His will! We struggle in opposition and resist and in
the manner of obstinate slaves we are brought with sadness and grief to
the sight of God, departing from here under the bond of necessity, not in
obedience to our will, and we wish to be honored with the rewards of
heaven by Him to whom we are coming unwilling. Why then do we pray and
entreat that the kingdom of heaven may come, if earthly captivity delights
us? Why in our often repeated prayers do we ask and beseech that the day
of His kingdom may come quickly, if there are greater longings and
stronger desires to serve the devil here than to reign with Christ?
Chapter 19
Finally, in order that the signs of divine providence might become more
clearly manifest that the Lord, foreknowing the future, looks to the true
salvation of His own, when one of our colleagues and fellow priests,
exhausted by illness and alarmed in the face of approaching death, prayed
for a respite for himself, there stood beside him, as he prayed and was now
almost dying, a young man venerable in honor and majesty, noble in stature,
shining in aspect, and upon whom as he stood before it the human sight
could scarcely look with the eyes of the flesh, except that on the point of
departing from the world it could already regard such a one. And he, not
without a certain indignation of mind and voice, spoke angrily and said:
'You are afraid to suffer, you do not wish to depart, what shall I do with
you?'--the voice of one rebuking and warning, who, anxious at the thought
of persecution but untroubled at the summons of death, does not yield to
the present longing but looks to the future. Our brother and colleague who
was about to die heard what he was to say to others. For he who heard this
at the point of death heard it to the end that he should say it; he did not
hear it for himself, but for us. For what could he learn now as he was
about to depart? Nay rather he learned it for us who remain that, through
knowing that the priest who prayed for a respite was rebuked, we might know
what is of benefit to all.
Chapter 20
How often it has been revealed to us ourself also, the least and the last,
how frequently and manifestly have I been commanded, through God's
vouchsaving, that I should bear witness constantly, that I should preach
publicly that our brethren who have been freed from the world by the
summons of the Lord should not be mourned, since we know that they are not
lost but sent before; that in departing they lead the way; that as
travelers, as voyagers are wont to be, they should be longed for, not
lamented; and that dark clothing should not be worn here, inasmuch as they
have already assumed white garments there; and that no occasion should be
given to the pagans to censure us deservedly and justly, on the ground
that we grieve for those who we say are living with God, as if entirely
destroyed and lost, and that we do not show by the testimony of the heart
and breast the faith which we declare in speech and word! We are
prevaricators of our hope and faith, if what we say seems pretended,
feigned, falsified. It profits nothing to show forth virtue in words and
destroy truth in deeds.
Chapter 21
Finally, the Apostle Paul censures, rebukes, and blames any who are
sorrowful at the death of their dear ones. 'We will not,' he says, 'have
you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not
sorrowful, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died, and rose again; even so them who have slept through Jesus, will God
bring with him.' He says that they are sorrowful at the death of their dear
ones who have no hope. But we who live in hope and believe in God and have
faith that Christ suffered for us and rose again, abiding in Christ and
rising again through Him and in Him, why are we ourselves either unwilling
to depart hence from this world, or why do we mourn and grieve for our
departing ones as if they were lost, since Christ our Lord and our God
himself admonishes us and says: 'I am the resurrection: he that believeth
in me, although he be dead, shall live: And everyone that liveth and
believeth in me, shall not die forever'? If we believe in Christ let us
have faith in His words and promises, that we who are not to die forever
may come in joyful security to Christ with whom we are to conquer and reign
for eternity.
Chapter 22
As to the fact that meanwhile we die, we pass by death to immortality, nor
can eternal life succeed unless it has befallen us to depart from here.
This is not an end, but a passage and, the journey of time being traversed,
a crossing over to eternity. We would not hasten to better things? Who
would not pray to be more quickly changed and reformed to the image of
Christ and to the dignity of heavenly grace, since the Apostle Paul
declares: But our conversation, he says, is in heaven: from whence also we
look for the Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness,
made like to the body of his glory? Christ the Lord also promises that we
shall be such, since He prays to His Father for us that we may be with Him
and may rejoice with Him in the eternal abodes and heavenly kingdom saying:
Father, I will that where I am, they also to whom thou has given me may be
with me and may see my glory which thou hast given me before the world was
made. He who is to come to the abode of Christ, to the glory of the
heavenly kingdom, ought not to grieve and mourn, but rather, in accordance
with the promise of the Lord, in accordance with faith in the truth, to
rejoice in this his departure and translation.
Chapter 23
Thus, finally, we find that Enoch also, who pleased God, was transported,
as divine Scripture testifies in Genesis and says: 'And Enoch pleased God
and was not seen later because God took him.' This was to have been
pleasing in the sight of God: to have merited being transported from this
contagion of the world. But the Holy Spirit teaches also through Solomon
that those who please God are taken from here earlier and more quickly set
free, lest, while they are tarrying too long in this world, they be defiled
by contacts with the world. 'He was taken away lest wickedness should deter
his understanding, for his soul pleased God; therefore he hastened to bring
him out of the midst of iniquity.' Thus also in the psalms the soul devoted
to its God in spiritual faith hastens to God, as it is written: 'How lovely
are thy dwellings, O God of hosts. My soul longs for and hastens to the
courts of God.'
Chapter 24
It is for him to wish to remain long in the world whom the world delights,
whom the world allures by blandishing and deceiving with the enticements of
worldly pleasure. Furthermore, since the world hates a Christian, why do
you love that which hates you and not rather follow Christ who has redeemed
and loves you? John in his Epistle cries out and tells us and exhorts us,
lest in our pursuit of carnal pleasures we should love the world. 'Love not
the world,' he says, 'nor the things which are in the world. If any man
love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in
the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the
eyes and the ambition of the world, which is not of the Father but is of
the concupiscence of the world. And the world will pass away, and the
concupiscence thereof; but he that does the will of God abideth forever
even as God also abideth forever.' Rather, beloved brethren, with sound
mind, with firm faith, with rugged virtue, let us be ready for every
manifestation of God's will; freed from the terror of death, let us think
of the immortality which follows. Let us show that this is what we believe,
so that we may not mourn the death even of our dear ones and, when the day
of our own summons comes, without hesitation but with gladness we may come
to the Lord at His call.
Chapter 25
While the servants of God have always had to do this, they ought to do it
all the more quickly, now with the world falling and oppressed by the
storms of attacking evils, so that we who perceive that grievous things
have already begun and know that more grievous things are imminent should
count it the greatest gain if we should speedily depart from here. If the
walls of your house were tottering from decay, if the roof above were
shaking, if the house now worn out, now weary, were threatening imminent
ruin with its framework collapsing through age, would you not leave with
all speed? If, while you were sailing, a wind and furious storm with waves
violently agitated were presaging future shipwreck, would you not more
quickly seek port? Behold, the world is tottering and collapsing and is
bearing witness to its ruin, not now through age, but through the end of
things; and you are not thanking God, you are not congratulating yourself
that, rescued by an earlier departure, you are being freed from ruin and
shipwrecks and threatening disasters!
Chapter 26
We should consider, beloved brethren, and we should reflect constantly that
we have renounced the world and as strangers and foreigners we sojourn here
for a time. Let us embrace the day which assigns each of us to his
dwelling, which on our being rescued from here and released from the snares
of the world, restores us to paradise and the kingdom. What man, after
having been abroad, would not hasten to return to his native land? Who,
when hurrying to sail to his family, would not more eagerly long for a
favorable wind that he might more quickly embrace his dear ones? We account
paradise our country, we have already begun to look upon the patriarchs as
our parents. Why do we not hasten and run, so that we can see our country,
so that we can greet our parents? A great number of our dear ones there
await us, parents, brothers, children; a dense and copious throng longs for
us, already secure in their safety but still anxious for our salvation. How
great a joy it is both for them and for us in common to come into their
sight and embrace! What pleasure there in the heavenly kingdom without fear
of death, and with an eternity of life the highest possible and everlasting
happiness; there the glorious choir of apostles, there the throng of
exultant prophets, there the innumerable multitude of martyrs wearing
crowns on account of the glory and victory of their struggle and passion,
triumphant virgins who have subdued the concupiscence of the flesh and body
by the strength of their continency, the merciful enjoying their reward who
have performed works of justice by giving food and alms to the poor, who in
observing the precepts of the Lord have transferred their earthly patrimony
to the treasuries of heaven! To these, beloved brethren, let us hasten with
eager longing! let us pray that it may befall us speedily to be with them,
speedily to come to Christ. May God see this our purpose. May Christ look
upon this resolution of our mind and faith, who will give more ample
rewards of His charity to those whose longings for Him have been greater.
