Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(Daniel 7:2-14; Luke 21:29-33)
The four beasts of today’s reading from the Book of the
Prophet Daniel are so grotesque that they beg explanation. They are not symbols of the four gospels but
figures of successive empires. The lion with eagle wings represents Babylon,
strong but vulnerable. The bear with
three ribs refers to the Medo-Persian empire that defeated Lydia, Babylon, and
Egypt. The leopard with four heads and
wings symbolizes Alexander the Great sudden rise to power and its rapid devolution
into four minor potentiates after his death.
Finally, the terrifying beast with ten horns represents Rome with its
seemingly invincible armies.
However strong they are, the rule of the mighty beasts is
limited. God, the Ancient One, comes to
sit on the throne to rule over all forever.
The figure of the son of man then comes as the Ancient One’s
servant. Jews and Christians alike take this
figure as the Messiah who was to come to rule the earth. Christians identify him further as Jesus
Christ who often called himself by that name.
Jesus commands our
loyalty as much as our attention. He
served with humble love, even giving his life to rescue us from sin. God raised him from the dead as validation of
his leadership over us.
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