Today’s readings draw a single, piercing line through the Christian life: God calls us home, God governs all things by an unbreakable will, and God teaches us how to live as strangers in a world that is not our city. Augustine cries out to wandering hearts to descend in humility so that they may ascend to God through Christ, who ran the whole course of our salvation and still calls us inward to return. Aquinas anchors that call in divine sovereignty, showing that God’s will is immutable, always fulfilled, and yet wise enough to establish both necessity and true contingency without destroying human freedom. Hermas then turns doctrine into practice, warning believers not to build permanent lives in a foreign land, but to invest instead in mercy, generosity, and prayer—works that endure in the city to come. Together, these readings confront the illu ...