Death will be replaced with life

Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Apocalyptic texts, such as what we’ve just heard in the gospel and the first reading, can be fodder for much fanciful speculation regarding the end times. Even though apocalyptic writings often end in an assuring promise of hope, the triumph of God and the vindication of the righteous who remain faithful in spite of tribulations, it is more common to find people focusing on the frightening cataclysmic images associated with the end times, whilst ignoring the second part.

And then there is the issue of interpretation of these mysteriously cryptic texts. Our Lord seems to contradict Himself in the second half of the gospel passage. On the one hand, He seems to argue that the end times would be discernible from the cataclysmic signs and He likens this to how one can discern the seasons by looking at the life cycle of a fig tree. On the other hand, He is telling His disciples that any speculation on when the end times is going to take place would be futile: “But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.” How do we reconcile both these sayings? Well, it depends on what the Lord meant by end times.

On the one level, the end times which our Lord is speaking about will take place in the first generation of the Church. Our Lord is referring to the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem. For the Jews, the Temple was a microcosm of the universe as seen in the constellations and heavenly bodies embroidered on the Temple veil and the light of the sun, the moon and the five known planets are symbolised by the seven lights of the menorah candle stand. The words of our Lord are fulfilled, both at His death when the sun was darkened and the Temple veil was torn into two, and also in the year 70 AD when the Temple was destroyed by the Romans who invaded Judea to quell a local rebellion. If we take this understanding of the end times, then our Lord was speaking the truth when He said, “I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place.”

But the intentional ambivalence of the words of our Lord could be pointing to another time - to a distant unknown future - to the end of the world. The chaos described here is an undoing of God’s work of creation. Whether His words were pointing to the past or to a future event, the various levels of meaning are not meant to be contradictory but closely interconnected. The end-time tribulations begin in our Lord’s own passion and the subsequent destruction of the Temple, which signal the end of the age of the old covenant and ultimately, the end of the universe that will follow the final upheavals at the close of history. So, the end times does not solely refer to some indeterminate event in the future but to an event that has already occurred and which is in the process of reaching its final conclusion. If you are looking to uncover the secrets of the end times, look no further - We are living in the end times! We have been living the end times for the past 2000 years!

It is one thing to know that our Lord’s prophecy had been fulfilled in events of the past - His passion and the Temple’s destruction - but what about the future? How would we know that the final outcome of all the turbulence and chaos will end in our Lord’s victory and the salvation of His followers? We can. The veracity of our Lord’s prediction is supported both by what we have witnessed in the past as a fulfilment of His prophetic words but it is also backed up by this claim: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Accepting that the Lord’s words, His promises is eternally true, that He will never renege on them, is no great issue here. But what does He mean by saying that “heaven and earth will pass away”? What could He mean that “heaven,” which everyone knows is supposed to be eternal, will also pass away? If we want to get an answer, we must certainly look to the last book of the Bible – the Apocalypse.

But before we look at how things will end, we would have to look at how it began. The Book of Genesis paints a picture of how heaven is wedded to earth in the earthly Paradise of Eden, where man dwelt in harmony with God and the whole of creation. This is the old “heaven and earth.” But because of man’s sin, this earthly paradise has passed away, the earth is cut off from the full life of heaven. Throughout history, man has attempted to restore this earthly paradise but have repeatedly failed because only God alone can heal the rift. And He has done so through His only begotten Son, “for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:19-20)

And the new creation is here, taking a form which we least expect, Jesus Christ. He is both the author and the fulfilment of the new earth and new heaven. In the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse, we are granted a vision of how the story of salvation ends - with the emergence of a “new heaven and a new earth.” St John using symbolic language, speaks of how a river which flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb, will water and nourish this new garden-like paradise. It's an all-new Garden of Eden, where the tree of life (and not just a fig tree) is made accessible to man again. It is not a 'return back' to the garden; it's a step forward into a new Jerusalem, a great city representing the marriage of heaven and earth. In this city, there is no need for a Temple because God dwells among His people and the Lamb will be the Temple.

Although, we struggle with our present trials and endure the suffering that comes with a chaotic world caused by our sinfulness, we must always hold firm to the hope of the story of the Bible: God’s domain and our domain will one day be completely united. All things will be made new. “The learned will shine as brightly as the vault of heaven, and those who have instructed many in virtue, as bright as stars for all eternity.” Death will be replaced with life. The whole earth will be a recreation of the garden, and the glory of the temple will cover the whole earth. Every nation will be blessed through the power of the resurrected Jesus, and God’s own personal presence will permeate every square inch of the new creation. We can be certain of this promise because though the old heaven and earth may pass away, but our Lord’s words will never pass away because He always keeps His promises.