34th Week, Tuesday, Nov 23
Daniel 2:31-45 / Luke 21:5-11
The king has a strange dream; Daniel interpreted the king's dream.
The four kingdoms of Babylonia, Media, Persia and Greece took turns dominating the Near East for over 300 years. The king's dream foretells that these four kingdoms will all be replaced by a kingdom established by God. The gospel writers interpreted Jesus to be the unhewn stone that destroyed the statue (the composite symbol of the four kingdoms). Luke says of Jesus: “The stone which the builders rejected (left unhewn in the mountain) has become the cornerstone.', It will crush anyone on whom it falls." Lake 2.17-18
New Testament writers also interpreted the kingdom of God, preached by Jesus, to be the eternal kingdom foretold by Daniel.
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Do we believe God is at work in our world and that his plan for us cannot be frustrated? "I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.” Mary Prainard
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In a time of unrest in the Church, with our search for living our faith in a renewed way, the readings of today bring us a message of hope and trust. Kingdoms built without God will decay, destroy one another, and be ultimately replaced by God, the Lord of history, with God’s indestructible kingdom. This is the message of the Book of Daniel to the persecuted Jews.
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We often say that the past is history and the future is mystery. Sounds rather poetic. And good poetry often makes a reflection on the harsh reality but puts it across beautifully. So as much as we know the history of the past, we do not know the mystery of the future.
It is because we do not know the future, we tend to live in anxiety. And we may secretly like to think that if we know what is going to happen in the future, then we may be relieved of this anxiety. Well, king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about the future. And Daniel interpreted that dream for him. But did it quell his anxiety?
Similarly in the gospel, the people asked Jesus about the time and the signs of the future. And Jesus did tell them something about the future, but did it quell their anxiety? It is not good to be too anxious about the future, but yet we can turn that anxiety into something creative.
We can use that anxiety to build the foundations of our lives so that we won't be thrown about by the worries of what is to come.
The prophet Daniel mentions in the 1st reading of a stone, untouched by human hands. We, of course, know that the stone that he was talking about was that stone that was rejected by the builders but which became the cornerstone.
May Jesus be that cornerstone that forms the foundations of our lives. It is in Jesus that we can have security in a future that is a mystery. Because with Jesus we can truly live in the HERE and NOW. Without Jesus, we will be NOWHERE
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Jesus speaks of times of trials, directly of the fall of Jerusalem, which is a symbol of the end time. We may not forget that for us here and now the time of judgment is now: we prepare it now, we undergo, or better, create it now, by the way, we live individually and as a community. “Do not be misled,” says Christ. In other words, his message is meant to shake us, to wake us up to live the Gospel now.
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Opening Prayer
Lord our God, our faith is not a quiet possession of the truth and of rites that may give us security. Make us realize that it is tested and that you call us to be credible witnesses in our time and our situation of the passion and resurrection of your Son. Give us your Holy Spirit to guide us and to keep our hope alive that Jesus is our Lord and you our God forever. Amen
