ask a sick man how he is, he can only answer: I am aching all over; all my limbs are filled with pains. If one were to ask a saint in heaven how it is with his glorified body, his only answer could be: it is well with me all over. For like a fish surrounded with water, he swims in an ocean of delights and pleasures: when he enters into heaven he hears the words: “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,”[1] so as to he completely immersed therein. Thus all the senses have their own special and perfect satisfaction; and hence the pleasures of the body in heaven are so complete that nothing better can be desired. There is nothing there that can cause the least discomfort to the bodies of the blessed; there is everything, and that too in abundance, that can give them delight and pleasure in the highest degree.
Conclusion and resolution to mortify the senses here, that they may enjoy the delights of heaven hereafter. Christians! who is there who would not be inflamed with desire and longing for such a place of joys? I have not the least doubt that all of us here present unanimously wish to get there. But hear what St. Gregory says: “One cannot attain a great reward unless by great labor.”[2] The senses, to which endless delights are promised in heaven, must now be mortified and kept in restraint, that they May earn the reward of eternal joys; the senses, I repeat, that are now the greatest enemies of our souls, that do the most to keep us out of heaven if we concede too much to their wanton desires; for it is from them that almost all sin and the material of eternal damnation come. Ah, let us think, whenever they try to lead us to forbidden or dangerous things: is this short-lived, miserable pleasure worth sacrificing the eternal joys of heaven for? Let us think, whenever we find it hard to restrain them: is it not worth my while to bear a slight mortification for the sake of the eternal joys of heaven? Let us think when our bodies are tormented and oppressed by hard labor, cold, heat, or sickness: is it not worth my while to bear this and much more for God’s sake in order to gain the everlasting joys of heaven? When one invites a good friend to table, and sees him eating too eagerly of some inferior dish, one is wont to say: leave a little room; there is something better to come. The pleasures of sense that God allows us in this world are, so to speak, only coarse, inferior food placed before us at first; therefore if my senses are apt to fall upon them too greedily I will say to them: wait a while; something better and more agreeable
