Pippin: I didn’t think it would end this way.
Gandalf: End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path… One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass… And then you see it.
Pippin: What? Gandalf?… See what?
Gandalf: White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.
Pippin: [smiling] Well, that isn’t so bad.
Gandalf: [softly] No… No it isn’t.
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Gandalf: I will not say, Do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.
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Today I visited my friend the priest. He is not long for this world, maybe four months maximum. As I talked to him, I realized that much like the elves in Lord of the Rings, he “feels the sea calling him.” His eyes are no longer set on this earth. From World War II veteran through priest of the Lord, he has served long and well, and now his long service is drawing to an end.
And, yet, ultimately, like the quote from Gandalf above, we do not know all that awaits us, only that it is good. The Scriptures picture it in various ways. Sometimes it is pictured as a new heavens and a new earth and a new City of God. Sometimes it seems to be this eternal worship in the heavens. Sometimes we are told that mansions are being prepared for us and will await us. Psalm 23 pictures it as a place of verdant pastures for us sheep. These are images given to us that let us know that what awaits will be good and holy, but it will be a new age, and God will not reveal yet what all awaits us.
St. Gregory the Great preached a sermon in which you can see him also using those metaphors without being able to fully describe what awaits us. He says:
Again he says: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them; they follow me, and I give them eternal life. Shortly before this he had declared: If anyone enters the sheepfold through me he shall be saved; he shall go freely in and out and shall find good pasture. He will enter into a life of faith; from faith he will go out to vision, from belief to contemplation, and will graze in the good pastures of everlasting life.
So our Lord’s sheep will finally reach their grazing ground where all who follow him in simplicity of heart will feed on the green pastures of eternity. These pastures are the spiritual joys of heaven. There the elect look upon the face of God with unclouded vision and feast at the banquet of life for ever more.
Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on our way.
So, then, like my priest friend, let us be faithful, let us walk in faith that someday we, too, may reach that “far green country under a swift sunrise.”
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