Daily Reading for November 2 • All Faithful Departed
In the busyness of life many have lost the ability to recognize the Presence in their midst and the awareness that they can converse with the risen Lord. This is the only part of the gospel you can truly make your own. The whole of the gospel story is in a sense history; it is past and we can only enter it through using our imaginations and relating it to our lives. But the Christ is the risen Lord to be met and we can have a living relationship with him. . . . It is of little value talking about the resurrection if we do not seek to be aware of it in our lives and to relate to the risen Christ. St. Symeon the New Theologian said: “How can one who knows nothing of the resurrection in this life expect to discover it and enjoy it in his death?” . . .
Only the resurrection and the awareness that life is eternal can make this world, which is often dark and cruel, a place of light and hope. Only the knowledge that God welcomes us to be with him each day can make us truly at home in this world and able to say that “death is not fatal.” We cannot put off the kingdom of God or the resurrection until when we die, though we will experience them then in a deeper and more wonderful way. We must be at home in and delight in God’s kingdom now.
From Living in Two Kingdoms by David Adam. Copyright © 2007. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com