Preparing The Children For The Life To Come

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

November 09, 2025

in Spritual Growth

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November 09, 2025:

Readings: Job 19:23-27a
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
Luke 20:27-38

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025 Homily – Abp. Hines

Scripture teaches us the life God has prepared for us and how we should work together with Him in preparation for eternity. The story today talks about the Sadducees, a sect of priests in the Jewish tradition who were one of the very first set of priests, having come from the time of Melchizedek. They were free thinkers, and they did not have dogmas. They basically just put things together as they deemed right. One of the things they did not believe in was the soul. They did not believe in the resurrection. When things were presented to them, they immediately had questions. So, they were questioning Jesus about a woman who had seven husbands. They wanted to know whose wife she would be when she went to heaven. They were actually questioning about the resurrection. This says something to us. Sometimes we read scriptures but do not absorb what we read, or we do not allow the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us.

If we go back to Genesis, God said “be fruitful and multiply.” He meant this for eternity. When parents here on earth pro-create and produce children into this world, they are supposed to train the children in the way that they should go. This is in preparation for the life to come. In the kingdom to come, there will be no AI, because God knows everything. We should be preparing for the life to come. To take the message of God and bring it to the world so that they would know. This story is here to open our eyes to the truth. Our task is to work together with the Father. And part of the preparation is training the children. We should not get so tied up with the things of the world and so consumed by it that we forget God. Do we even have time to read the bible? Do we have time to allow the Spirit to speak to us?

There is a story of a Jew who became a Christian. He took his family to Saudi Arabia and started a little church in his home behind closed doors. One night when they were worshipping, there was a knock on the door. When he went to open it, there were three men standing; one had a gun, another a bottle of fluid, and the third was most likely the leader. They began to accuse him and threaten him and even poured the gasoline on him and lit it. He felt the heat, but he was not burned. The three men after witnessing this miracle, began believing that there must be a God who is stronger than theirs and they knelt down and accepted Christ. They then warned him to leave for Jordan so he could be safe there and because they knew there were going to be others who were coming for him. After some time, the three men eventually started churches.

1 Corinthians 2:8-10 The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written: “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HUMAN HEART, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

God’s words should be in our hearts. Deuteronomy 6:7 “And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.” God is not a God of the dead. He is the God of the living. He wants us to prepare our children to live for Him. We need to nurture our soul so that we can be the people he intends us to be.