This Age And The Coming Age

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

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

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

Sunday, November 10, 2019

After undergoing an extensive journey with this disciples, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, where he was immediately confronted and opposed by the chief priests, scribes, and the leaders of the people. They attempted to set him up by posing questions that challenge his authority. Their ultimate goal was to entrap him so as to find reasons to put him to death. Today’s Gospel tells us that one of the opposing groups, the Sadducees, came forward and asked him a question designed to humiliate him. Addressing Jesus as a “teacher”, they said, “Moses wrote 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 story, they narrated a story of seven brothers, who, at some point of their earthly lives got married to the same woman, but one after another, they all died without raising any child with the woman. Eventually the woman also died. “At the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?” they asked (Luke 20:27-38). It is important to note here that the Sadducees were an extreme conservative sect among the Jews who did not believe in the resurrection, in spirits and angels. The question they posed to Jesus was meant to prove that there is no resurrection. They were not interested in understanding the theology of the resurrection; all they wanted to do was to make a mockery of the belief in the resurrection. They wanted Jesus to make a fool of himself. They did not ask to know, rather to ridicule the most fundamental of Jesus’ teaching. Everything that Jesus taught and did rest 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 were not true, then it means that Jesus is not true. If resurrection were a lie, it means that Jesus is a lie. If resurrection were fake, it means that Jesus is fake. If there were no resurrection, it means that Jesus lied to us. If there were no resurrection, then it means that Jesus went into extinction after his death. This is what the Sadducees wanted to demonstrate. They wanted to dismantle the cornerstone of the Christian Faith. 

But guess what? They chose the wrong person because Jesus showed them that he is indeed Immanuel—God who is with us— who has an unquestionable knowledge of life, death, and resurrection. He used the opportunity to set the Sadducees straight by making a distinction between “this age” and “the coming age.” In this age he said, men and women will marry and remarry; but in the coming age, those found worthy by God to experience the Resurrection of the dead will no longer marry, nor be given in marriage. In this age, men and women will die, but in the coming age, death will no longer have power over them. They will be like angels, heavenly beings of which the Sadducees did not believe exist. In this age, men and women are citizens of one country or another; but in the coming age, they will be solely citizens of heaven, solely and totally children of God. In this age, men and women have human identity; but in the coming age, they will have the abiding identity of God’s own children.  In this age, life is often interrupted by wars, economic, political and social crisis or by natural disasters, but in the coming age, joy is stable; peace is uninterrupted. In this age, we live with so many lacks, but the coming age offers us abundant life, life in its fullness. In this age, we are so divided along religious, political, and racial lines, but in the coming age, we will all be united as God’s children. In this age, the world is divided into two rooms— the haves and the haves not. But in the coming age, there is only one room and all those in it are simply winners and over-comers. In this age, we work to make a living, but the coming age will bring everlasting rest, eternal youthfulness, where no one will work for money or fame. One thing I love about the coming age is that it is a place where human power and failure are equalized forever.  

This age is no where close to the coming age. This age is transient; it is passing away. But the coming age is stable and permanent. The Resurrection is nothing like the life we live here on earth. In this age, life is a struggle; at the coming age, life is fulfilled and better. In this age, we experience pain all through life, but in the coming age, there will be no pain, no suffering. In this age, we need several things to live a true human life and to survive, but in the coming age, we will live, move and have our being in God alone. In this age, there is a need to enter into marriage to preserve our human species from dying out, but in the coming age, none of that would matter because death will be eliminated. In heaven, we will be like angels. Anyone who wants to be part of this coming age should do the following: love God wholeheartedly, and love others intentionally.