"They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign... They find themselves in the flesh, and yet live not after the flesh. Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven."—Diogn. 5.5-9
I was quite moved when reading the Epistle to Diognetus. This quote summarizes a feeling that I've come to experience more deeply as my Catholic formation has progressed—the sense of being an alien in a culture and society that is emphatically not Christian, and even anti-Christian. The life that we are called to is so great an inversion of worldly values that it is hard to put into words the sensibility that one attains as their heart is more devoutly set on the things of heaven.
To desire humility, to seek to love all men, to go to the lowest places in search of the highest things... These are ideas that are simply unbelievable by the world's standards. Who wouldn't want to gain at all times, to satisfy the desires of the flesh, to always attempt to rise in status? What kind of person does not want those things.
As the Epistle shows us, this is the natural Christian approach to life in the created world. We are in the flesh, but not after the flesh. With eyes not looking at the desires of the flesh, but raised to the heights of the spirit. To see Christ in all things, and earnestly strive to attain to his likeness by constant struggle. What a calling we have been given, one that is as ancient as the Church herself, as this letter attests.
