That we must hasten to the heavenly fatherland, the end of the present way. Behold, now we must speak of the end of life: for we have already said that human life is a way, and how doubtful and uncertain it is, and that it is not what it is, we have shown by the likeness of a shadow: likewise we said before how unforeseen and how blind it is, but concerning the end of our life, with the Holy Spirit helping us, our discourse must be carried forward. It belongs to travelers to hasten to their fatherland: it belongs to them likewise to have anxiety on the way, security in the fatherland. Let us therefore hasten to our fatherland, we who are on the way; for our whole life is, as it were, the journey of a single day. Our first task is to love nothing here; but let us love things above, desire things above, savor things above, seek the fatherland above:
for there, where the Father is. We have therefore no fatherland on earth, because our Father is in heaven (Matt. 6:9). For if by the power of his might and the greatness of his deity he is everywhere—he who is deeper than the sea, more stable than the earth, broader than the world, purer than the air, higher than heaven, brighter than the sun (Job 11:8-9)—yet he is manifestly in the heavens, in which is the bread of angels, who as members of the household dwell in the blessed palace of the first heaven, and enjoy the sight of God. But because a weaker nature could not bear the pure nature of the unseeable God;
therefore the merciful God, within whom are all things, and outside whom is nothing, assigned the first region of his knowledge, which he enclosed in the first heaven (which he tempered by the waters lifted up), to the supernal powers: for unless that nature of the first heaven were tempered by the aforesaid waters, kindled by the power of the supernal God, it could in no way be endured by the lower natures; and thus, present everywhere to all things, God is unseeable. For he is more than can be wholly beheld, and greater than all, who created all things out of nothing; and therefore when he is seen, he is invisible, because who he is and how great he is, is known to himself alone. Let us nevertheless knock upon him, because he is present to each according to the merit of his purity, invisible though he be, inestimable though he be, God the Trinity.
Let us knock, I say, whether here or there, more familiarly, or let us enter, or more manifestly understand, and let us, singing on the way, say: After you, in the fragrance of your ointments, we will run (Cant. 1:3); and: My soul has cleaved after you (Ps. 62:9); and: Draw me after you (Cant. 1:3); that with these songs we may hastily pass through the world, and, governed from above, may neglect present things, and, always thinking on heavenly things, may despise earthly ones: for unless we pant with impatient heavenly desires for heavenly things, we must needs cleave to earthly ones. Let us therefore busy ourselves with divine things, lest perchance with human; and as pilgrims let us always sigh for our fatherland, always desire our fatherland;
for the end of the way is always to be wished and desired by travelers: and therefore because we are travelers and pilgrims of the world, let us always think on the end of the way, that is, of our life; for the end of our way is our fatherland. But there all who journey through the age obtain different lots according to their merits; and the good travelers rest in the fatherland: but the evil shall perish away from it; for many lose the true fatherland, because they love the way more. Let us not love the way more than the fatherland, lest we lose the eternal fatherland; for such is the fatherland we have, that we ought to love it. Let this definition therefore abide with us, that here we live on the way;
that as travelers, as pilgrims, as guests of the world, cleaving to no covetous desires, panting after no earthly longings, but filling our souls with heavenly and spiritual forms, we may sing in virtue and deed: When shall I come and appear before the face of my God? For my soul has thirsted for the strong, living God (Ps. 41:3); and: My soul is like a land without water unto you (Ps. 142:6); and, saying with Paul: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), let us know that, though pilgrims from the Lord as long as we are in the body (2 Cor. 5:6-8), we are nevertheless present to the eyes of God.
Wherefore, having trampled down all sloth, and laid aside all lukewarmness, let us strive to please him who is everywhere present, that with a good conscience and the way of this age we may happily pass over to the blessed and eternal fatherland of our eternal Father, from things present to things absent, from sad things to joyful, from perishable to eternal, from earthly to heavenly, from the region of death to the region of the living, where face to face we behold heavenly things, and the King of kings ruling his realms with upright governance, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.