Let us embrace the day which assigns each to his
own home ... which restores us to paradise and the kingdom of heaven,
snatched from hence and liberated from the entanglements of the world.
What man, when he is in a foreign country, would not hasten to return to
his native land?... We regard paradise as our country.... We have begun
already to have the patriarchs for our parents. Why do we not hasten and
run that we may see our country, and salute our parents? There a large
number of dear ones are waiting for us, of parents, brothers, children;
a numerous and full crowd are longing for us; already secure of their
own immortality, and still anxious for our safety. To come to the sight
and the embrace of these, how great will be the mutual joy to them and
to us! What a pleasure of the kingdom of heaven is there without the
fear of dying, and with an eternity of living! How consummate and
never-ending a happiness! There is the glorious company of the apostles;
there is the assembly of exulting prophets; there is the unnumbered
family of martyrs crowned for the victory of their struggles and
suffering; there are virgins triumphing, who, by the power of chastity,
have subdued the lusts of the flesh and the body; there are the merciful
recompensed, who with food and bounty to the poor have done the works of
righteousness, who keeping the Lord's commands have transferred their
earthly inheritance into heavenly treasures.
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