And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Read Chapter 35
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
[God] is the same one who said to Jeremiah, “Behold, I place my words in your mouth as a fire.” David, therefore, also received this tongue of fire, so that he could speak of divine knowledge while enkindled with zeal: “Make known to me my end, O Lord.” He was not here asking about his own death or about the final resurrection. He was inquiring into that end of which the apostle spoke: “For the end will come when the Lord Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father and when he destroys every principality and power and when death is the last of all things to be destroyed,” such that evil is defeated and eternal goodness is ignited. Therefore it was said, “Pain and wailing will flee.” - "Explanation of the Twelve Psalms 38.16"
What about hope? Will that be there [i.e., in heaven]? Hope will not continue when the thing hoped for is there. Certainly hope is very necessary for us in our exile. It is what consoles us on the journey. When the traveler, after all, finds it wearisome walking along, he puts up with the fatigue precisely because he hopes to arrive. Rob him of any hope of arriving, and immediately his strength for walking is broken. So the hope also which we have here is part and parcel of the justice of our exile and our journey. Listen to the apostle himself. “Awaiting the adoption,” he says, “we cannot yet say there is the bliss of which Scripture says, ‘Toil and groaning have passed away.’ ” - "Sermon 158.8"
The world is indeed harassed by the evil lives and statements of many people. This attack upon the good and the bad is just like when mud and an ointment are blown on the same wind; the one exhales a foul odor, while the other has a sweet fragrance. In order that everyone may understand this, I will reveal it more explicitly to you, my friend. Good and bad people are two urns, one of which contains rottenness, the other precious spices. When they are blown by the same fan, the urn that has spices gives forth a desirable fragrance, while the one that is a sewer returns an unbearable stench. Similarly, both good and bad people are troubled but are distinguished by the penetrating judgment of God. Whenever tribulation comes to the world, the good like a holy vessel thank God who has deigned to chastise them; those who are proud, dissolute or avaricious on the contrary blaspheme and murmur against God, saying, O God, what great evil have we done that we should suffer such calamities? There...
When death is swallowed up in victory, therefore, there will be no corruption of body or soul, for when all iniquity has been removed from us, no infirmity will remain. Indeed, it is about such matters that Isaiah said, “They will obtain joy and gladness; and pain and moaning will flee from them.” - "Three Books to Trasamundus 3.19.3"
For by these tokens the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil are distinguished: and in truth if lifting up our mental gaze on high we would consider that state in which the heavenly powers live on high, who are truly in the kingdom of God, what should we imagine it to be except perpetual and lasting joy? For what is so specially peculiar and appropriate to true blessedness as constant calm and eternal joy? And that you may be quite sure that this, which we say, is really so, not on my own authority but on that of the Lord, hear how very clearly he describes the character and condition of that world. “Behold,” he says, “I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But you shall be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.” And again “joy and gladness shall be found therein: thanksgiving and the voice of praise, and there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath.” And again: “They shall obtain joy and g...
And in fact, if we look with the elevated gaze of our mind at the condition wherein the heavenly and supernal virtues that are truly in the kingdom of God make their home, what else should it be thought to be than perpetual and continual joy? For what belongs so much to true blessedness and so befits it as continual tranquility and everlasting joy?… “They shall receive joy and gladness; sorrow and groaning shall flee away.” - "Conference 1.13.3–4"
I ask you to consider the condition of the other life, so far as it is possible to consider it; for no words will suffice for an adequate description. But from the things which are told us, as if by means of certain riddles, let us try and get some indistinct vision of it. “Pain and sorrow and sighing,” we read, “have fled away.” What then could be more blessed than this life? It is not possible there to fear poverty and disease. It is not possible to see any one injuring or being injured, provoking or being provoked, or angry, or envious, or burning with any outrageous lust, or anxious concerning the supply of the necessities of life, or bemoaning himself over the loss of some dignity and power. For all the tempest of passion in us is quelled and brought to nothing, and all will be in a condition of peace and gladness and joy, all things serene and tranquil, all will be daylight and brightness, and light, not this present light but one excelling this in splendor as much as daylight is...
You are about to journey a long road, and you need many supplies. You shall arrive at the place eternal that has two regions, wherein are many mansions; one of which places God has prepared for them that love him and keep his commandments, full of all manner of good things. And they that attain to it shall live for ever in incorruption, enjoying immortality without death, where pain and sorrow and sighing are fled away. But the other place is full of darkness and tribulation and pain, prepared for the devil and his angels. In it also they shall be cast who by evil deeds have deserved it, who have bartered the incorruptible and eternal for the present world and have made themselves fuel for eternal fire. - "Barlaam and Joseph 14.124"
“The one who endures to the end will be saved.” By still referring to this the text goes on reading: “On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore.” In the twelve months he suggests the idea of all times and designates eternity. Therefore where there is eternal greenness, no aridity will ever be allowed to exist. Where there is perfect and sound health, no infirmity is ever admitted, and also the prophet promises this by saying, “They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” “The tree” is the one that we read to be “planted by streams of water,” about which also Jeremiah says “that it sends out its roots by the stream,” that is, places its hope and confidence in the Lord. In another sense the river of the water of life is recognized to signify rightly the fountain itself of life, tha...
“Everlasting joy,” says Isaiah, “shall be upon their heads.” Well, there is nothing eternal until after the resurrection. “And sorrow and sighing,” he continues, “shall flee away.” The angel echoes the same to John: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” 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. And again: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,” and therefore no more corruption, it being chased away by incorruption, even as death is by immortality. - "On the Resurrection of the Flesh 58"
