Excerpted from a meditation by Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI
"We are only guests on earth; we are pilgrims in the profoundest sense, that the earth is not ultimate, and we are on our way to the new world. The things of earth are not final and decisive. We hardly dare to say it anymore, because people accuse us Christians of not having bothered about earthly matters, of having failed to build the new city in the world because we could always take refuge in the other world. But it is not true. The man who clasps the earth fast, who regards earth as the only possible heaven, actually makes a hell of it, for he is trying to make it into something it cannot be. In trying to make it ultimate, he is setting himself against himself, against truth and against his fellowmen. No; it is only when we realize that we are wanderers that we become free from ultimate covetousness, free for one another. Only then can we be entrusted with the responsibility of fashioning the earth in such a way that, in the end, we shall be able to place it in God's hands. So let this Passover night, which reminds us of Jesus' final path, continually challenge us to bear in mind the final path we all must take and to remember that eventually we shall have to leave behind all our possessions. In the end it is not what we have that counts, but what we are. In the end we shall have to give an account of how, in this world and on the basis of our faith, we shared peace, a home and family with our fellow human beings, and how we helped to bring a new city to them."
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