The Resurrected Life is Nothing We Have Ever Experienced

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church

Sunday, November 10, 2013

The Sadducees were an extreme conservative sect among the Jews. They belonged to the upper social and economic echelons of Judaean society. They fulfilled various political, social, and religious roles, including maintaining the Temple. The Sadducees believed that only the first five books of the Bible were the inspired word of God. They did not believe in spirits, angels and the resurrection. In spite of the general belief among the Jews that the dead would rise on the last day, as shown by the first reading taken from 2 Maccabees 7:1-2; 9-14: “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him...” the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.  As recorded in today’s Gospel (Luke 20:27-38), some of them came up to Jesus and asked him a question they believed would prove that there’s no resurrection: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.” Continuing with their question, they narrated a story of seven brothers, who, at some point of their earthly lives got married to one woman but one after another, each of them died without having any child with the woman. Finally the woman also died. “At the resurrection,” (which you people believed) “whose wife will that woman be?” 

The Sadducees asked this question, not because they were interested in understanding the theology of the resurrection; rather, they just wanted to make a mockery of the belief in the resurrection. They wanted Jesus to make a fool of himself. They wanted to see Jesus struggle to answer their question and to have a good laugh. They did not ask to know, they asked to ridicule the most fundamental teaching of our faith. Everything that Jesus taught and did was hinged on resurrection. In John 11:25, Jesus says of himself, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even if they die, they will live.” If resurrection is not true, then it means that Jesus is not true. If resurrection is a lie, then it means that Jesus is a lie. If resurrection is fake, then it means that Jesus is fake. If there was no resurrection, then it means that Jesus lied to us. If there was no resurrection, then it means that Jesus went into extinction after his death. This is what the Sadducees wanted to show, to prove and to demonstrate. 

But then Jesus showed them that he is indeed the Lord of life, that he is indeed the resurrection and the life; that he is indeed the Son of God who has come down from heaven. Jesus taught them that his teaching on resurrection is not just an article of faith that he has not witnessed. As the Son of God, as Immanuel, God who is with us, he has an unquestionable knowledge of the resurrection. He has seen those who believed in God raised up. Jesus told the Sadducees that their notion of marriage and resurrection  was wrong, that they completely misunderstood marriage and resurrection: “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die for they are like angels...” Resurrection will be nothing like the life we live here on earth. At the resurrection, life is better. There will be no pain, no suffering, no boredom, no need for the things we now need to survive. We will die no more. There will be no need to enter into any marriage to keep and preserve our species from dying out. In heaven, we will be like angels. The best way to describe it is those moments of our lives when we experience the intense love of another or the great love of God. The experience of the resurrection will be infinitely more profound than anything we have experienced here on earth. 

Death frightens a lot of people. Death brings human life to an end. But today’s gospel reminds us of the hope of the resurrection. It tells us that the dead will rise to die no more. It reminds us that God is not only the God of the living, but also the God who continues to create. Through Jesus Christ, God is creating a new world; he is inviting us to a new life, the life of love and friendship. This new life does not happen automatically; it is a gradual process; it is a step by step movement following Jesus who says, “I am the way.” Like the song, It’s A Long Road to Freedom says: 

It’s a long road to freedom

A winding steep and high

 But when you walk in love

With the wind on your wing

And cover the earth

With the songs you sing

The miles fly by.