'but he that does the will of God abides for ever, even as God abides for ever.' Rather, dearly beloved brethren, with sound mind, firm faith, and robust virtue, let us be prepared for every will of God; with the dread of death cast out, let us consider the immortality that follows. Let us show ourselves to be what we believe, that we may neither mourn the loss of our dear ones, and that, when the day of our own summons comes, we may without hesitation and gladly come to the Lord at His own calling. And though this ought always to be done by the servants of God, it ought now to be done much more, when the world is already collapsing and beset by the whirlwinds of assailing evils, so that we who perceive that grievous things have already begun, and know that more grievous are impending, may reckon it the greatest gain, if we swiftly depart hence.
If in your dwelling the walls were tottering with age, the roof above were trembling, and the house, already worn out and weary, were threatening imminent ruin with its structures collapsing through old age, would you not migrate with all speed? If, as you sailed, a turbulent and stormy tempest, with its waves more violently aroused, foretold a coming shipwreck, would you not more swiftly seek the harbor? Behold, the world totters and slips and bears witness to its own ruin, not now by the old age of things but by their end: and do you not give thanks to God, do you not congratulate yourself, that by an earlier departure you are withdrawn and rescued from the ruins and shipwrecks and plagues that threaten? It must be considered, dearly beloved brethren, and again and again pondered, that we have renounced the world and dwell here meanwhile as guests and sojourners.
Let us embrace the day which assigns each one to his own dwelling, which, when we are snatched hence and loosed from the snares of the world, restores us to paradise and to the kingdom. Who, when set in a foreign land, would not hasten to return to his own country? Who, hastening to sail to his own people, would not more eagerly desire a favoring wind, that he might the sooner embrace his dear ones? We reckon paradise to be our country; we have already begun to have the patriarchs as our parents: why do we not hasten and run, that we may behold our country, that we may greet our parents? There a great number of our dear ones awaits us; a dense and abundant throng of parents, brothers, and children longs for us, now secure of their own immortality, yet still anxious for our salvation.
To come to the sight and embrace of these—how great a joy is it both for them and for us in common! What is there the pleasure of the heavenly kingdoms, without fear of dying and with the eternity of living—how supreme and perpetual a felicity! There is the glorious choir of the apostles, there the number of the exulting prophets, there the innumerable people of martyrs crowned for the glory and victory of their struggle and passion, there triumphant virgins who subdued the lust of the flesh and of the body by the strength of continence, there the merciful rewarded who did the works of righteousness by the nourishment and bounties given to the poor, who, keeping the Lord's precepts, transferred their earthly patrimonies to heavenly treasures.
To these, dearly beloved brethren, let us hasten with eager longing, that it may befall us to be with them quickly, to come quickly to Christ. May God behold this our purpose; may Christ look upon this resolve of mind and faith—who is to give the ampler rewards of His love to those whose desires toward Him have been the greater.