Tuesday, November 23, 2021

 

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

 (Daniel 2:31-45; Luke 21:5-11)

 The United States, as powerful a nation as it is, cannot control the course of history.  It could not even keep a democratically elected government ruling in Afghanistan. With both Chinese and Russian expansionism as well as an independent European Union, the United States must reassess its purposes.  The prophet Daniel perceives work of this order for Babylon in today’s first reading.

 The Book of the Prophet Daniel is more historical novel than Israelite prophecy.  Nevertheless, there is real truth in its message.  In today’s reading the book’s protagonist warns the king of Babylonia that his rule is soon to come to an end.  However, the author (whoever he may be) has all the rulers of the earth in mind.  His message is that they should not strive to conquer more lands but to establish justice where they rule.  Such statesmanship is necessary because in the end God will judge the nations.  In the author’s prophetic imagination, God’s kingdom is the stone that becomes a mountain filling the whole earth.

 Americans have cause to be grateful for the blessings heaped upon their country.  In its best days the United States has responded graciously by contributing to a better world.  Certainly standing up to the tyranny in the Soviet Union benefited all humanity.  But Americans should not think that their country’s every initiative is just.  Its leaders have spawned injustice in certain times and places for which they are subject to God’s judgment.

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