He showed me the river of the water of life clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of its square, and on either side of the river, is the tree of life, bearing fruit twelvefold (...). On it shall be the throne of God and of the Lamb, and his servants shall worship him, and shall see his face, and bear his name engraved on their foreheads1. Sacred Scripture ends where it began: in Paradise. And the readings of this last day of the liturgical year point us to the end of our journey here on earth: the Father's House, our definitive dwelling place,
The Apocalypse teaches us, through symbols, the reality of eternal life, where man's longing will be fulfilled: the vision of God and happiness without end and without end. In this reading, St. John presents us with the encounter of those who have been faithful in this life: the water is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, represented by the river that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The name of God on the foreheads of the elect expresses their belonging to the Lord2. In Heaven there will be no more night: there will be no need for light or lamps or the sun, because the Lord God will shine upon them and will reign forever and ever
The death of the children of God will be only the previous step, the indispensable condition, to be reunited with their Father God and to remain with Him for all eternity. With Him there will be no more night. As we grow in the sense of divine filiation, we lose the fear of death, because we feel more strongly the longing to meet our Father, who is waiting for us. This life is only the way to Him; "for this reason it is necessary to live and work in time, carrying in our hearts the longing for Heaven "4
Many men, however, do not have this "longing for Heaven" in their hearts because they are satisfied here with their prosperity and material comfort and feel as if they were in their own definitive home, forgetting that we do not have a permanent dwelling here5 and that our heart is made for eternal goods. They have dwarfed their hearts and have filled them with things that are worth little or nothing, and which they will leave forever in not too long a time.
We Christians love life and all that we find noble in it: friendship, work, joy, human love..., and it should not surprise us that at the moment of leaving this world we experience a certain fear and uneasiness, since body and soul were created by God to be united and we only have experience of this world. However, faith will give us the ineffable consolation of knowing that life is transformed, not lost; and when the house of our earthly dwelling is dissolved, an eternal dwelling is prepared for us in Heaven6. Afterwards, Life awaits us.
The children of God will be astonished in glory to see all the perfections of their Father, of which they had only a foretaste on earth. And they will feel fully at home, in their definitive dwelling place, in the bosom of the Most Blessed Trinity.
For this reason, we can exclaim: "If we do not die, we change our home and nothing more. With faith and love, we Christians have this hope; a certain hope. It is nothing more than a farewell. We should die saying goodbye in this way: see you later!".