The answer
This is true, and it is a genuine goal.
However, even though Christianity is a heavenly life, it is practiced on earth. We should not forget that God is not isolated in heaven when dealing with us. He came down to us, and united Himself to our human nature. He ate from the fruits of our earth, and drank from its waters. He granted us eternity through the reality of time. He took what is ours (i.e. our earthly nature, and our sins), and gave us what is His (the heavenly and eternal life), as was said by St. Athanasius the Apostolic.3
So, in Christianity, we live that which is heavenly without disregarding the earthly. We worship God unconditionally without abandoning order, deriding time, or forgetting that we are here on earth.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Notes
3 Translator’s note: “He acted as our Mediator, taking on Him what was ours, that He might impart to us what was His” (cf. St. Athanasius, Fourth Discourse Against the Arians 6, 7).
Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 10–11.
The pages in the book (10–11)
