Passing Away

Κύριε, τίς παροικήσει ἐν τῷ σκηνώματί σου;   Ἥ παροικία ἐστὶ διαγωγὴ πρόσκαιρος, οὐχ ἱδρυμένην ζωήν, ἀλλὰ παροδικὴν, ἐπ' ἐλπίδι τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ κρείττονα μεταστάσεως, ὑποφαίνουσα. Ἁγίου δὲ ἀνδρὸς, παροδεύειν μὲν τὸν βίον τοῦτον, ἐπείγεσθαι δὲ πρὸς ἑτέραν ζωῄν. Διὸ καὶ ὁ Δαβιδ περὶ ἑαυτοῦ φησι· Πάροικος ἐγώ εἰμι παρὰ σοὶ, καὶ παρεπίδημος, καθὼς οἱ πατέρες μου. Πάροικος γὰρ Ἀβραὰμ, οὐδε βῆμα ποδὸς ἰδίας γῆς κεκτημένος, ἀλλ' ὁτε ταφῆς αὐτῷ ἐδέησεν, ἀργυρίου κτησάμενος ταύτην φαίνεται· δεικνύντος τοῦ λόγου, ὅτι ζῶντα μὲν ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ πάροικον εἶναι προσήκει, μεταβαίνοντα δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ζωῆς ταύτης, τοῖς οἰκείοις τόποις ἐναναπαύεσθαι. Διὰ τοῦτο ἐν μὲν τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ παροικεῖ τοῖς ἀλλοφύλοις, ἐν δὲ τῇ ταφῇ οἰκείαν ἑαυτῷ τὴν δεξομένην αὐτοῦ τὸ σῶμα γῆν ἐπραγματεύσατο. Μακάριον δὲ τῷ ὄντι, μὴ ὡς οἰκείοις προστετηκέναι τοῖς ἐν τῇ γῇ, μηδὲ ὥσπερ πατρίδος τινὸς φυσικῆς  ἀντέχεσθαι τῶν ἐνταῦθα, ἀλλ' εἰδέναι τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν βελτιόνων ἀπόπτωσιν, κιὰ τὴν ἐκ καταδίκης ἐνθάδε διαγωγὴν βαρυνόμενον, οὔτω παροικεῖν ὡς οἱ ὑπὸ δικαστῶν τινων ἐπί τισι πλημμελήμασιν εἰς τὴν ὑπερορίαν ἐκ τῆς ἐνεγκούσης ἀπελαθέντες. Σπάνιος δὲ ὁ τοιοῦτος, ὁ μὴ ὡς ἰδίοις προσέχων τοῖς παροῦσιν· ὁ τοῦ πλούτου τὴν χρῆσιν πρόσκαιρον ἐπιστάμενος· ὁ τοῦ σώματος τὴν εὐεξιαν ὀλιγοχρόνιον τιθείς· ὁ γνωρίζων τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης δόξης τὸ ἄνθος ἀβεβαιον. Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας, Ὁμιλία Ἐις Τους Ψαλμούς, Εἰς Τον ΙΔ' Ψαλμον  Source: Migne PG 29.252a-c

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? 1 This sojourning is the passing of temporal things, in this life not stable, and he speaks of it as a sojourning because of the hope of going off to better things. For it is of the holy man that he is passing from this life and hurrying to another life. Therefore David says about himself: 'An alien I am before you, and a wanderer like all my fathers.' 2 Abraham was a foreigner, he did not possess one foot of land for his own, but when a tomb become needful, he gave money to purchase it. 3 Certainly Scripture shows that living in the flesh, one should be as an alien, moving on from this life into the proper places of rest. So in this life he is among foreign peoples, in the tomb however his body receives the land which is proper to it. And certainly he was blessed not because he was bound to any earthly things as his own, nor because he clung to present things as to his natural fatherland; but knowing that fall from better things, and being burdened here with the passing of things on account of condemnation, and thus sojourned, as they who because of error received the judgement of expulsion into exile. Rare is that man who does not desire present things as his own, who knows how to use riches given for the time, who judges the housing in the body to be of brief duration, who recognises the fragile flower of human glory.. Saint Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 14 1 Ps 14.1 2 Ps 38.13 3 Gen 23.16