Imagining the Afterlife

Nov. 23: Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings challenge us to imagine what life will be like at the end of time, with God and all his angels and saints. In the end, it’s impossible, because of our limited perceptions of time and space. But metaphors and symbolism at least help us get an idea.

Reading

Rv 11:4-12

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.

When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.”

So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.

As is fairly common in Revelation, we begin with some violent imagery, but the context is important. The lampstands and olive trees represent martyr, who died violent deaths for Christ. But at the end of time, they won’t have to passively accept abuse while preaching the Gospel. Also, note that their responses to harm mirror the plagues of Egypt, tying together the greatest event in Jewish history with the victory of Christ at the end of time.

Only when they’re done preaching do they get killed, symbolically, by the “great” cities of the world. The worldly believe they’ve won, but it’s only temporary—three and a half days is half of the “complete” number, seven. The death of the martyrs won’t be complete, because God will raise them up.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 144:1, 2, 9-10

R.    (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R.    Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.
R.    Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R.    Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!

This psalm is also based around violent, martial imagery. They were written in a time of war. But even in the face of death and destruction, David sings praise to God.

Alleluia

See 2 Tm 1:10

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

God is just, but also merciful. Jesus redeems us not because it’s something we’re owed, but because He loves us.

Gospel

Lk 20:27-40

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, "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. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her."

Jesus said to them, "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; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well."

And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

Our lives in Heaven aren’t going to be like our lives on Earth. They’ll be so different, in fact, it’s hard to even imagine. As Trent Horn wrote: “Sacraments like marriage are ‘road signs’ that point us to our final heavenly destination and give us the grace to continue that journey. But when you reach your destination, road signs are no longer needed, and so sacraments such as baptism, confession, and even marriage will not exist in heaven.”

Our closeness to each other, even our spouses, won’t be able to rival our closeness to God in the end.