Now is the time to grow tired of your captivity in these “Babylonian” days. Here comes that heavenly mother, Jerusalem, to meet with you on the way with a cheerful invitation to “choose life and love to see the good days” (Psalm 34:12), days which you will never have in this world. Here, after all, your days “are fading away like smoke” (Psalm 102:3). For them, extension has meant becoming less. As they grow in length they have become fewer. They rise up and then vanish away.

—Augustine, Sermon 216.4