If heaven is our fatherland, what is this earth but a place of exile, and this life but a journey through a strange land? If leaving this world means the entrance into real life, what else is this world but a grave? What else is dwelling on this sinful earth, but being plunged into death? If deliverance from the body means completed liberty, what is this body but a prison? If to enjoy the presence of God is the peak of happiness, is it not misery to be without it? For until we escape out of this world, "We are absent from the Lord."