Dual Citizenship

As people of faith, we live in two realms at once. We live in history, which unfolds in chronological time. And we live in the infinite eternal realm where God dwells in all fullness.

But life gets busy-we have work to do, people to take care of, children to raise and so on. So, we lose sight of that eternal reality that surrounds us. And we really don't fully perceive it even when we're not busy, because we are finite beings and we are not able to peer into eternity for more than a split second.

But the great feast days of the church year, including All Saints' Day, are like those longer-than-usual, brighter flashes of lightning that sometimes happen in a summer thunderstorm and that suddenly illuminate the landscape for a brief moment. All Saints' Day invites us to contemplate some aspects of the eternal reality that is all around us. As the letter to the Ephesians says, "I pray that . . . God . . . may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe . . . "

In history, we sometimes feel close to God and at other times not. Sometimes we lose our faith or become alienated from God. But in the eternal realm, we are at one with God. Christ came into the world so that we could become one with him, and one with God.

In history, the human family is divided, and there is fighting, in homes, in our government, and in many places in the world. In the eternal realm, we are one with each other through Christ. The Church uses the metaphor of one Body-the Body of Christ-to describe this unity.

In history, the dead are dead and remain heartbreakingly silent to those who miss them. In the eternal realm they are alive, and live in the land of light where God is.

We lose sight of that infinite reality because we are finite and cannot wrap our minds around it. But it is not a distant reality-it is right here all around us. The dead are all around us, and God is all around us. As Jesus taught, the kingdom of God is within and among us. It is just hidden from view except for those momentary glimpses, flashes, dreams and intuitions.

Who has not experienced that indefinable yearning for something you can't even name? C. S. Lewis calls that sudden intense desire for something unknown "joy."

And it is joy, even though it is an experience of something painfully missing. As Lewis says, "it is an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction." It is the longing for God, for that infinite realm where everyone and everything is reconciled-where the dead are raised, the lame can walk, the blind can see, the captives are free.

The letter to the Colossians says that our lives are hidden with Christ. I think that means that the part of us that is one with God and with Christ is not always visible to us, who live with the limitations of time and space.

But we get glimpses, flashes of illumination, stabs of joy. And they remind us of what we are here for and where we are going. We are part of a great fellowship of saints who have been called to help make God's realm more and more visible in the created world, until time ceases and the kingdom of God is fully realized. We make God's eternal kingdom shine more brightly when we feed the hungry, console those who mourn and pursue justice for the poor. The eternal becomes almost tangible when we turn the other cheek, give more than is asked of us, love our enemies, do good to them and pray for them.

In all these things, we manifest the hidden unity among all people, and our unity with God. We become signs or icons of that other world, which lies in and around, over and under this one. And our joy increases as we follow the trail blazed for us by Christ. As Jesus says in John's Gospel, "if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." (John 15:10-11).

And we are not alone along the way. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, faithful people all over the world and the faithful dead who intercede for us. We are accompanied by all the saints, great and small, famous and obscure, more and less perfect, who followed Christ and showed forth God's glory.

At the end of our journey, we will see God face to face, and live fully in that infinite realm. Or to put it another way, the end of the human journey will be when God's realm is fully visible on earth, when Christ shall be all in all. The joy of yearning will give way to a joy beyond our imagining-an infinite joy. I pray that God may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.