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Click here to listen to this homily.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n It was on Mount Sinai long ago that God said, \u201cI shall make you a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n That was our beginning; it remains the decree of our destiny yet to come, the beginning our pilgrimage from the holy mountain to the celestial city, the city whose light is the Lamb, with trees with leaves of healing. It is the history of Israel, the history of the Church: this idea of the people of God, of elect and covenanted people who are also a sign and instrument of God\u2019s providence and purpose. I\u2019m talking, of course, of the Jews and us.<\/p>\n The idea was of a people rooted together in place, bound together in justice; the idea was to approximate as much as possible the harmonies of Eden: men and women in their cool walks with God, families in toil and love together, before Cain killed anyone or Jacob stole anything.[2]<\/a> \u201c[T]here shall be no one of you in need if you but listen to the voice of the Lord,\u201d the ancient scripture read.[3]<\/a> Again, at least that was the idea.<\/p>\n But these people of God wanted an earthly king, just like the pagans around them had kings. \u201cBut I brought you out of Egypt,\u201d God said to them; why reject God, God asked them, by asking for an earthly king?[4]<\/a> Such is the fraught beginnings of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, those more bloody than blessed centuries scarring the history of God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n Hence, the prophets. Elijah and Elisha, and the prophecies they spoke: they were the bearers of God\u2019s history, not the kings, not their armies. Hence Isaiah\u2019s dream of a servant, a different sort of servant, a servant filled with the Spirit who would bring justice to the nations, better than any king, but who would do so\u2014mysteriously\u2014through suffering. Pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity, healed by his wounds: that\u2019s what Isaiah said.[5]<\/a> That\u2019s who would bring justice to the nations, a servant who suffered.<\/p>\n And so, we worship a crucified Jew, mocked in dress like a king\u2014his thorny crown\u2014and crushed by Roman political weakness and Roman military power. Because of Isaiah, you know why. We worship him, for we know\u2014for the prophets taught us how to see\u2014that his suffering and death are part of the peace he gives: that reconciliation born of his wounds, that peace he also called the kingdom of God, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n This is what the New Testament calls the \u201chidden\u201d mystery: that in Jesus would be gathered together and bound in him in love Jews and Gentiles, all nations, everybody in faith.[6]<\/a> This is the \u201cmultitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue,\u201d which John saw in his vision in the Book of Revelation.[7]<\/a> It\u2019s the Church, the body of Christ; it\u2019s what Jesus called the kingdom of God; it\u2019s exactly what he decreed on Sinai. And it\u2019s the kingdom to which we belong\u2014some of us by faith and sacramentally, some sacramentally but without faith, but with judgement. But that has always been so.<\/p>\n Saint Augustine called it the City of God. And it is woven, he said, into the Earthly City. This is merely an allegory, a way to explain two ways of loving. To love God rightly, to worship him rightly, is to belong to the City of God; to love the self, to the point of contempt for God and others, is to belong to the Earthly City.[8]<\/a> One is a city of peace, the beginning of heaven begun at the altar of God; the other is a city of violence and the war of all against all.[9]<\/a> The citizens of the City of God exist in the Earthly City, but they know the difference between the two. They know what they are meant to do in the Earthly City; they know they are to be Christians\u2014to bear witness, to preach, and to suffer like Christ. They are to be people good for earthly peace, but without compromising the ultimate good of heavenly peace. They are meant to be the world\u2019s mustard seed, wheat among weeds, yeast leavening the world, the blood of martyrs nourishing the spiritual gardens of the Church, peaceable and beautiful in an ugly world. But only if they remain as Christ: gentle, like a lamb led to the slaughter, peaceful not powerful, not seeking\u2014like our forbears did so long ago\u2014any earthly king. Because as so many martyrs said, laughing before princes and prefects: We worship the God of heaven and earth, not Caesar. No matter what.<\/p>\n Now, brothers and sisters, what I am talking about is, of course, what this feast of All Saints means to teach us, And because I think there is a divine providence to this feast falling, as it does, the Sunday before an election, especially an election so idolatrous for so many and bitter for all. Brothers and sisters, I know these are anxious times. I hear it from someone at least every day. A friend texted me just yesterday, \u201cWe are so anxious about the election.\u201d I know; I get it. But what does the Church say to us about this anxiety, this election? On this feast of All Saints, it\u2019s as if the Church is saying to us, simply: Remember the real kingdom<\/em>. The saints, with the angels, with all the faithful all over the earth: that is the real kingdom; such is your first citizenship. As the ancient text puts it, \u201cany motherland is a foreign country.\u201d[10]<\/a> \u201cOur citizenship is in heaven,\u201d Paul said.[11]<\/a> \u201c[Y]our ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry,\u201d Martin Luther King said.[12]<\/a> This is what so many religious and non-religious people both get wrong. Non-religious folk have no other citizenry; they can\u2019t help but make the earth, their tribe, their nation something like a church (history is full of horrific examples of this); they can\u2019t help but become extremists too. But, of course, religious people (especially in this country) do the same: they try to make America their church. Formed perfectly as the individualists we are\u2014even many Catholics are perfectly Protestants in this\u2014we can\u2019t help but forget that America isn\u2019t our church, the Church is. And so, we can sometimes make idols of our politicians, our politics idolatry, our political disagreements tinged with a strange, technically demonic hatred; both the right and the left does this and is doing it now. Because they believe more in America than the Church. It is our current ideology; for some of us, our heresy.<\/p>\n Which is why I will not make the mistake some clerics have of telling you who to vote for; I won\u2019t even speak in that silly coded language clergy sometimes do. Get yourselves formed; vote if you want to. Do your best to be good citizens in what is still a very beautiful and great country; serve your country and when it\u2019s just, fight for it. But don\u2019t idolize it. Remember the real kingdom. Because the Church was here before America. It\u2019ll be here after America too. And me telling you that shouldn\u2019t scandalize you, that is, if you\u2019re a Christian formed in the genuine faith of Jesus and his kingdom. If you walk with angels and saints.<\/p>\n And also, finally, a little spiritual advice. Perhaps it would be better for you to do what I have done; for me, it is what\u2019s kept me sane in this insane world. And that is: mind your soul. Tend to the state of your soul. Let your soul fall in love and whisper love and kiss the feet, the hands, and the lips of Bridegroom. Love the Lord your God with everything. And love him in silence. For that\u2019s one way to find the kingdom\u2014even in these strange times\u2014the kingdom you may either enjoy forever or lose forever. It just depends on what you really love and on the kingdom to which you want really to belong. Amen<\/em>.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Exodus 19:1<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Genesis 4:8; Genesis 25:29-34<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Deuteronomy 15:4-5<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> 1 Samuel 10:17-19<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Isaiah 53:5<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ephesians 3:6-12; Galatians 3:28<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Revelation 7:9<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Augustine, City of God<\/em> 14.28<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan<\/em>, Ch. 13<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> The Epistle to Diognetus<\/em> 5<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Philippians 3:20<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Martin Luther King, Jr., A Knock at Midnight<\/em>, 41<\/p>\n