Philippians 3:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Perhaps those who honor Him will also be caught up in the clouds. It is said: “we,” who honor Him, “shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17).

Who then will be found a faithful and wise servant? Who are those who will be counted worthy of such blessings? How pitiable are those who have fallen away!

Even if we were always to mourn for those who have lost the Kingdom, could we mourn their lot worthily? Even if you spoke of thousands of Gehennas, you would say nothing equal to that torment.

The soul will endure it when the whole universe is shaken and the trumpets sound. Angels of the first order will go before, then those of the second, then of the third.

After this, countless hosts will descend to the earth. Then the cherubim, who also are many and without number, and after them the seraphim.

Finally, Christ Himself will come in that ineffable glory. Those who have come before will hasten to bring the elect into the midst.

Then Paul and all who have been glorified like him will be crowned by the King before the whole heavenly army. They will be proclaimed and honored.

Even if there were no Gehenna, what would it be for some to receive honor and others dishonor? Gehenna is unbearable, I confess, exceedingly unbearable. Yet deprivation of the Kingdom is more unbearable still.

Tell me, if a king, or a king’s son, returned after completing many wars and winning admiration, what would happen? Suppose he entered a city with the whole army, in a chariot with trophies.

Suppose he came with countless regiments covered in gold, with bodyguards bearing golden shields. Suppose the whole city were adorned, and all the rulers of the world stood beside him.

Behind him would follow foreigners of every age, bound in chains, with prefects, satraps, consuls, tyrants, and rulers. In all this glory, he would receive some citizens who met him.

He would greet them, give them his hand, and allow them to speak with complete freedom. Perhaps he would converse with all who stood there as friends.

He would say that he had made this whole journey for their sake. Then he would bring some into his royal chambers and leave others outside.

To what punishment would this not be equal, even if those left outside were not punished? If it is so bitter to be deprived of such glory by a man, much more is it bitter to be deprived by God.

Then all the powers above will be with the King. The demons will be bound and humiliated. The devil himself and every hostile power will be led away in chains.

The powers of heaven will be there, and Christ Himself will come upon the clouds. Believe me, because of the grief that oppresses my soul at this account, I cannot finish my discourse.

Let us consider what great glory we lose, though it is possible not to lose it. The painful thing is that we suffer this, while it lies within our power not to suffer it.

When Christ receives some and leads them to the Father in heaven, He will leave others behind. Angels will seize these unwilling ones, as they weep and hang their heads, and drag them into the fire of Gehenna.

First they will expose them before the whole universe. What grief, then, do you think there will be?

Therefore let us strive while there is time. With great zeal, let us care for our salvation.

How many things could we say such as the rich man said? If anyone allowed us now, we would offer useful counsel. But no one allows it.

That we would say much is known not only from that rich man, but also from many others. Do you not know how many have been feverish and said this?

“If only we could recover, we would no longer fall into such torments.” We shall say many such things then. Yet like that rich man, we shall hear that there is a gulf, and that here we “received good things” (Lk 16:25).

Therefore I implore you, let us sigh bitterly. Or rather, let us not only sigh, but also live virtuously.

Let us weep now for salvation, so that we may not weep then in vain. Let us lament now, and not lament then over impiety.

Present weeping comes from virtue. Future weeping comes from useless repentance. Let us grieve now, so that we may not grieve then.

It is not the same to grieve here and there. Here you grieve for a short time. Or rather, you do not feel grief at all, knowing that you grieve for good.

There, grief is most terrible, because it is hopeless, unceasing, endless, and eternal.

May we all, having escaped such grief, receive rest. Yet if we are not to lose this rest, intense effort and continual prayers are needed. Therefore I ask you, let us strive.

“Our commonwealth is in heaven,” and our life is there, “for,” he says, “it is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). Our rewards are there, and our struggles are for the crowns that are there.

This life of ours does not cease with death. Then, after death, it shines forth all the more.

The latter regards all people as lower than its own lowliness. The former thinks on what is above the world. The latter dreams of earthly things. The former desires divine and ever-memorable glory. The latter loves glory that fades away.

Now he wishes to set all in an intense and unbroken abiding in this communion. He does so through walking the self-denying path of the Cross. By raising our gaze to heaven, where our citizenship is, he disposes us to await the Savior from there. When he says that we await, he raises, or awakens, all into the state of those waiting and therefore preparing to meet Him. Here the thought is the same as in the parable of the steward." An even greater impulse to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, and to perfect the holiness of Christian life in the fear of God, lies in the reminder of our body's transformation. It will be made like the glorified Body of Christ, and this will be accomplished by the almightiness of the expected Lord (cf. 2 Cor 5:17; 2 Cor 7:1). After the Resurrection, He said that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him (Mt 28:18). By this authority He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet (1 Cor 15:25; cf. Eph 1:22). The humiliation of our bodies consists first of all in their sickness, coarseness, and corruption. Therefore their glorification will consist in freedom from sickness, spirituality, immortality, and in general likeness to Christ's Body. For Christ, His humiliation according to human nature served for His exaltation. So also for the Christian, participation in Christ's way of the Cross will lead to participation in His glory.

Even then you manifested in yourself the power of heavenly life by spiritual clairvoyance, healings, and authority over the powers beneath the earth. Venerable Father Sergius, by your prayer and blessing, help us raise our thoughts and hearts to heavenly life.

May we not sink into the vanity of earthly life. To the earthly mind the apostolic proclamation may seem strange, that our citizenship is in heaven.

It will say: even the birds of heaven do not live in heaven, though we grant them the right to be called heavenly more than others. We can separate ourselves from the earth less than birds can.

Our life stands upon the earth as on a foundation. It is nourished by earthly food, covered by earthly clothing, and sheltered in an earthly dwelling. How then can it be said that our citizenship is in heaven?

It would be another matter if it had been said, Our citizenship will be in heaven. But even this, who knows? And how is the other possible?

You will justify me, brethren, in that I will not agree to correct or weaken the apostolic words to please those who do not understand. I stand firmly in the apostolic assurance that our citizenship is in heaven.

To make this truth intelligible and perceptible, one must distinguish and compare temporal and eternal life, bodily and spiritual life.

If a city dweller, while traveling in a field or village, were asked where he lives, without doubt he would not say, here on the road, or here in the village inn.

He would say that he lives in the city, where he has his house and family, even if at the moment of questioning he were far from the city.

And rightly so. We live not where we happen to be journeying, nor where we spend the night in an inn, but where we have our permanent dwelling.

Apply this to the Apostle, and his saying, unusual at first glance, will become simple. Saint Paul regarded temporal life only as a journey, and the earth as nothing more than an inn.

As the traveler’s thought goes ahead of him and is already in his house while he is still on the road, so the Apostle’s heart, during his earthly pilgrimage, was already where his treasure is.

It was where God dwells in light, where Christ reigns in glory, where the mansions of the saints are, and where their true and eternal life is.

Thus he thought and felt. He assumed the same thoughts and feelings in all Christians, as participants in the same faith and heirs of the same eternal life.

Therefore he spoke assuredly not only about himself, but about all of us together with himself: our citizenship is in heaven.

As temporal life is a barely perceptible moment before eternity, so bodily or sensory life scarcely deserves the name of life in comparison with spiritual life.

When the holy Apostle proclaims heavenly life, he rejects with grief and indignation the bodily or sensory life that prevails in some people.

"For many walk, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (Phil 3:18-19).

Even a non-spiritual person will be offended if he is told that he lives only by the belly. So low is the opinion of the belly and the life of the belly, even among people who do not think spiritually.

But if every worshiper is undoubtedly far lower than his deity, then consider how low are those whose god is the belly. They sacrifice time and life, body and soul, nature’s gifts and worldly acquisitions to the idol of sensual enjoyment.

If this is life, then it is only bestial. There is not a spark here of human life, much less Christian life.

What life, then, could there be that we would not be ashamed to call our life? Will they say, the life of the heart? Or the life of reason?

Concerning the life of the heart, I will say this: if it is not raised by a special means, it borders closely on the life of sensuality. Therefore it easily falls into the same abyss of baseness which we have just indicated.

Or it easily passes into the life of a beast, which finds pleasure in tearing apart.

As for the life of reason, besides the fact that it rises to a certain height only with difficulty and only in a few, earthly reason also hangs over the abyss of sensuality.

In human nature there is no power sufficient to support it safely. Therefore the Apostle places those who mind earthly things beside those whose god is the belly and whose glory is in their shame.

That is, he places them beside those who, having surrendered to sensuality, set their glory in shameful deeds, and whose end is destruction.

What life, I ask again, could we call our own without exposing ourselves to shame and danger? No other than the life of the spirit.

It is the life in which the members that are on the earth, that is, sensual desires and passions, are put to death by the Cross of Christ. This happens through obedience to His commandments and by following His example.

It is the life in which reason is taken captive into the obedience of faith. From faith it receives both pure light, to see the truth, and strength, to stand unshaken in it.

It is the life in which Christ dwells by faith in human hearts and acts in them by love. He acts toward inward peace, outward well-being, the good order of society, and eternal blessedness.

This life is not earthly, because it puts earthly things to death. It is not earthly, because it is born from a heavenly and divine seed.

It is heavenly life because, though sown on earth, it grows into heaven and even above the heavens. It is heavenly even before the end of visible earthly life.

For the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us has been proclaimed to us. Consequently, our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 Jn 1:2-3).

There is also the communion of the Holy Spirit with us all (2 Cor 13:13). This communion, without doubt, is heavenly and above the heavens.

Let us know and feel, Christians, the dignity of Christianity. Let us believe the apostolic proclamation. Let us understand this proclamation. Let us rejoice in this proclamation, that our citizenship is in heaven.

If meanwhile the changes of temporal life frighten us, the needs of bodily life burden us, and the temptations of the flesh trouble us, let us lift our eyes from the dark and revolving earth to the bright and unmoving heaven.

From there we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. He will finally end the changes of time, the needs of the body, and the temptations of the flesh.

He will do this when He transforms the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory. He began this for us and gives us hope in it through His Transfiguration, Resurrection, and Ascension.

Our citizenship is in heaven. In this apostolic word I give you, children of the Church militant, a weapon against much that fights against you on earth.

Does grief over a good and beloved departed one weigh upon you? Say to yourself: our citizenship is in heaven.

It would not be prudent to weaken oneself on the road by grief over one who has gone ahead of us. It is better to strain one’s strength and attention, so as to walk by the faithful path to where the life of both is.

Does love for earthly things and the desire for many possessions tempt you? Say again: our citizenship is in heaven, and here we are traveling.

A traveler must not increase too much the burden of provisions for the road. It would be absurd to stop on the road and build a magnificent house for one night’s lodging.

Are you wronged? Are you deprived of property, honor, or reward? Say again to yourself: our citizenship is in heaven.

There are our treasures that cannot be stolen, incorruptible crowns, and eternal rewards. There is no need for much anxiety if a small coin is taken on the road.

Let us rather take care to preserve the priceless inheritance in the house of the heavenly Father.

Thus, by the strong thought of heavenly things, by faith in heavenly things, by love for heavenly things, and by hope of heavenly things, prevail, earth-born one, over the earthly and the infernal.

Strive unceasingly, that heaven may be in you by grace, and that at last you may be in heaven with eternal glory. Amen.

We must become accustomed to its laws and customs, and not mind earthly things. Πολιτευμα also means a manner of life and occupation. Thus one says that a man's whole life is in this or that, meaning that he is occupied only with it. We must be occupied with heaven. Our heart and thoughts must be there. There let our treasure be, and there all our hopes. We stand in complete opposition to those who do not rise above the earth. "From which also we await the Savior." He brings to its close the discourse begun at the start of this section, namely, that he desires to attain the glorious resurrection through communion in Christ's sufferings. He has explained from every side the necessity of this communion and has stirred up zeal for it. Now he wishes to set all in an intense and unceasing abiding in this communion. He does so by directing our gaze to heaven, where our citizenship is, and disposing us to await the Savior from there. When he says that we await, he raises all into the state of those waiting and therefore preparing to meet Him. Here the thought is the same as in the parable of the steward. We await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. We await the Judge of the living and the dead. But according to the aim of his discourse, the Apostle names the One expected only Savior and Lord. He sets forth only the resurrection as the purpose of His coming. After the resurrection comes judgment. Speaking thus, the Apostle wants us always to conduct ourselves so well that, when the Lord comes, His judgment may not touch us. Then only the glory of the resurrection will shine upon us.