… the deceased has removed into a better country, and bounded away to a happier inheritance; … thou has not lost thy son, but bestowed him henceforward in an inviolable spot. Say not then, I pray thee, I am no longer called 'father', for why art thou no longer called so, when thy son abideth? For surely thou didst not part with thy child, nor lose thy son? Rather thou hast gotten him, and hast him in greater safety. Wherefore, no longer shalt thou be call 'father' here only, but also in heaven; so that thou hast not lost the title 'father', but hast gained it in a nobler sense; for henceforth thou shalt be called father not of a mortal child, but of an immortal …. For think not, because he is not present, that therefore he is lost; for had he been absent in a foreign land, the title of thy relationship had not gone from thee with his body.
-- St. John Chrysostom
#2558
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