The World Is Not Our Home

Dan Doyle

Where do we look? On what do we direct our gaze? These questions are not to be taken lightly, nor are they limited to the present moment. The answers we have to these questions have infinite importance. As the title of this piece boldly states, this world is not our home. We are made for more, and we are, in fact, pilgrims, in a strange land. We have only a few short years to find our way to the destination our Creator made us for.

All things pass away in this world, including us. We are merely passing through this life, and our bodies will eventually pass away, just as all material things do. But we are made of sturdier stuff. Unlike all material things, we possess a soul made in the image and likeness of God. Because of the Fall of Adam and Eve, though, we lost the intimacy of our original relationship with God and became strangers and sojourners in a hostile land. Sin made us so, and continues to make us so.

We who believe in Jesus Christ have been given the incomprehensible grace of baptism that cleansed us of the stain of that Original Sin that made us slaves to sin and death. We believe that Jesus Christ, in the shedding of his blood, has removed the chains of our slavery to sin and death, that is, to the things of this world that last only temporarily, and that do not have eternal life in them. We say this, and we believe this, but we still experience the world and all of its temptations, its appeals to our ego, and to our selfish demands for the fleeting pleasures of immediate gratification.

The challenging questions that we need to keep before us at all times as we wander our pilgrim journey through the world are: “Where do we look? Where do we direct our gaze? Are we focused on the highest good? Or are we more often than not looking only at ourselves and the gratification of our own fleeting and temporary pleasures? Is our loving gaze more on God and his ways, or is it on much lesser things? To what, or to whom, do we look for guidance on this journey? Do we generally put our trust in the wisdom of the world, worldly philosophies, political ideologies, persons? Or do we look to God, who alone has the words of eternal life?

Nothing in this world is really mine. I am simply a custodian of all that our Gracious God has given me. My response to God’s generosity of love toward me is to learn more and more how to love him and my neighbors more in this world, so that when my sojourn is done I can be with all of the holy ones in heaven to dwell forever in the presence of God. The Christian life is to be a life of virtue. The practice of virtue is animated and inspired by love. Love is the force behind all virtue; it articulates the virtues and orders them; it is the source and goal of their Christian practice.

Yes, we are pilgrims, strangers in a strange land, but we have a home for which we long with all our hearts. Let us keep our eyes on God more and more often, for He is our north star. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that leads to eternal life. Let us keep our gaze on Him, for He is the beacon that lights our way to our eternal home. In Jesus’ name. Amen.