Today's Office of Readings has as its second reading an excerpt from a Letter to Diognetus. This is one of my favorite readings. I'm not sure why, because every year when I read it, it makes me feel uneasy, unworthy — yeah, all of that. Listen to this portion of it:
Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body's hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.
That just reminds me that no, we're not home yet. We are supposed to live as full citizens of the world, but also as aliens in it — the whole Catholic both/and approach to theology in general. We must take our place here and make present the Kingdom of God on earth. But we must always live remembering that we are not ultimately destined for life in this world, and so must not be too attached to things, people, anything that drags us away from our Creator.