What is this one Church like?

• a. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 21:4). The scholar Tertullian says, “‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes’ (Rev. 7:17); from the same eyes indeed which had formerly wept, and which might weep again, if the loving-kindness of God did not dry up every fountain of tears.”¹³⁶²

• b. “There shall be no more death” (Rev. 21:4). Death ends forever.

• c. “Nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). The old world has passed away with all its susceptibility to destruction, and everything in eternity becomes new, joyful, and delightful.

• d. “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold I make all things new’” (Rev. 21:5). The soul shall find nothing there capable of boring her.

St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “The soul continues to long to see God, and this carries on forever: the soul moving from beginning to beginning, with beginnings that never end.”¹³⁶³ Each time a person contemplates God, he sees Him as if for the very first time, as new to his vision, and his longing to worship Him and look upon Him only increases, continuing in this manner without end.

He goes on to emphasize that none shall receive the eternal inheritance save only those who strive patiently, so He says, “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son” (Rev. 21:7). As for those who neither strive nor believe, they have no portion with Him, for He says, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). He begins this bitter inventory with “the cowardly,” those who deny the faith fearing for their temporal life; these are the most wicked of categories. Following them are the “unbelieving,” for it is impossible to please Him without faith. Next come the evildoers, the “abominable, etc.,” who are believers in name but commit actions that do not correspond to the faith. Finally, he focuses on the liars, saying “all liars”; by lying he means those who cheat and deceive in their dealings and conversation.

1361 St. Augustine of Hippo, Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.6.17 (NPNF I/6:281).

1362 Tertullian, On the Resurrection 58 (ANF 3:590).

1363 See The Light Magazine ( Megallat al-Nour, Arabic) 8, 1968. Translators’ Note: Cf. St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on The Song of Songs , ed., Brian E. Daley S.J. and John T. Fitzgerald, trans., Richard A. Norris Jr. (Society of Biblical Literature, 2012) 5, 11: pp. 171–173, 339.