together, joy in the psalms and hymns, joy in the memory of Christ's passion
274 SAINT A UGUSTINE - SERMONS light and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of the darkness (1 Thes 5:4-5). So this song we sing over and over again9 is a constant reminder to us to live good lives. When we all say together with harmonious voices, joyful spirits, hearts beating together, This is the day which the Lord has made, let us fit ourselves to the sound we make, or else our tongues may be giving evidence against us. You're going to drink yourself silly today, and you still say This is the day which the Lord has made? Aren't you afraid he may answer you, "This is certainly not the day which the Lord has made"? And can it be called a good day, when by self-indulgence and loose living it has made it into the worst possible day for itself?10
The everlasting joy of the kingdom will not generate boredom, any more than good health does in this present life
2. Here we have such joy, my brothers and sisters, joy in your coming together, joy in the psalms and hymns, joy in the memory of Christ's passion and resurrection, joy in the hope of future life. If what we are still hoping for fills us with such tremendous joy, what will it be like when we actually possess it? Just look how these days, when "Alleluia" is ringing in our ears, our spirits soar! Isn't it as though we were getting I don't know what little taste of that city beyond the stars? If these days fill us with such tremendous joy, what will that day be like when we are told, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom (Mt 25:34); when all the saints are gathered together there in unity; where in that great reunion those who hadn't met before now see each other; where those who had known each other now recognize one another; where they will all be together in such a way that a friend is never lost, an enemy never to be feared?
I mean, here we are, saying Alleluia-, it's good, it's enjoyable, it's full of happiness, delight, pleasure. And yet, if we said it all the time, we would get bored. But when it recurs at a fixed season of the year, with what delight its return is greeted, with what wistfulness its departure! Will enjoyment be like that there, and will there be boredom then? There won't be.
Someone says, perhaps, "And how can it happen, that this goes on all the time, and never gets boring?" If I can show you something in this life that can never get boring, will you believe that there everything will be like that? Yes, food can get boring, drink can get boring, entertainment can get boring, this, that and the other can get boring; good health, though, has never been found boring.11 So just as in this time of the mortality of the flesh, this time of frailty, this time of the weariness of the burden of the body, it has never been possible to get bored with good health; so there, in the same way, there will never be any boredom with charity, with immortality, with eternity.