Friday, November 28, 2025

 

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.

Friday, December 1, 2023

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 7:2-14; Luke 21:29-33)

The liturgical years ends on a high note.  Today’s first reading shows God’s victory over evil and the reign of “the son of man” over the earth.  The four defeated beasts are the superpowers of different stages in the last millennium before Christ.  They all emerged from the sea, a symbol of evil.

The two-winged lion represents Babylon with its two ferocious kings Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.  The bear symbolizes the Median empire, a rival of Babylon.  The leopard signifies the Persian empire which rapidly became a regional powerhouse.  The terrifying beast at the end is the wicked Seleucid dynasty that attempted to snuff out Jewish religious practice.

Jews and Christians have suffered many persecutions over the centuries.  They still exist as confessing peoples.  Their enemies, on the contrary, are but bitter memories, for the most part at least.  We should thank God for deliverance from oppressors.  We also need to ask His help in combatting current threats to religious freedom.

Friday, November 26, 2021

 Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 7:2-14; Luke 21:29-33)

The Old Testament forbids drawing images of God.  Nevertheless, people have continued to do it.  Theologians have defended the practice, and the Church has approved it.  Images of God often take on the features of the Ancient One in today’s first reading.  He looks old but not worn.  His white hair bespeaks wisdom, not senility.

The reading also describes a personage named as the “Son of Man.”  Jesus identifies himself with this term.  We Christians, therefore, believe that it is he.  He has conquered the enemies of the people.  The Ancient One justly presents him with kingship of the whole world.

We have approached the end of another liturgical year.  We have celebrated once again in detail Jesus’ victory over sin and death.  He has led us from subjection to evil to freedom as children of God.  We can continue to give thanks to the Father for him.

Friday, November 29, 2019

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 7: 2-14; Luke21:29-33)

Apocalyptic literature shows God coming to the rescue when things seem most dire.  For many today such writing seems more cartoonish than the stuff of good drama. Yet it engages people’s consciousness when they are threatened by a calamity.  Apocalyptic writers offer hope to those who have experienced a long, hard struggle. 

The only example of a completely apocalyptic work in the New Testament is the Book of Revelation.  There faithful Christians are assured victory over their Roman persecutors.  In the Old Testament the Book of the Prophet Daniel is the prime example of the apocalyptic.  It was written in the second century before Christ the wicked Antiochus IV Epiphanes was oppressing Israel. The book foresees an eventual reversal of lots.  Today’s grotesque passage is apparently an alternative account of the reading from Daniel heard at mass on Tuesday.  The four beasts represent the succession of empires leading to the everlasting reign of God.  The passage foresees God eventually triumphing over the successive reigns of terror. 

Some understand apocalyptic literature as a literal description of the future.  It is better for us to spiritualize its meaning. We will not face fiercely shaped beasts in the future.  But we will struggle against evil everyday of our lives.  Evil takes the form of illegitimate desire for pleasure, possessions, or power.  As God comes to the rescue in apocalyptic literature, we beg His help in our struggles. 

Homilette for Friday, November 27, 2009

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 7:2-14; Luke 21:29-33)

We have difficulty appreciating apocalyptic literature. We live in a time where the main material worry is over the Dow-Jones average. In apocalyptic times people worried about ravaging armies and systematic servitude. Apocalyptic writers offered hope to the victims by providing a vision of eventual triumph after a long, hard struggle. The only example of a completely apocalyptic work is the Book of Revelation in which faithful Christians are assured victory over their Roman persecutors. In the Old Testament the Book of the Prophet Daniel is one of the prime examples of the apocalyptic. Written during the oppression of the wicked Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Daniel foresees an eventual reversal of lots. Israel will overturn its oppressor, and God will reign over it forever.

Interestingly, the grotesque passage from Daniel that we read today makes sense when it is interpreted with the aid of the Book of Revelation. The text at hand is obscure. But John, the visionary of Revelation, cites the same passage but works from a different manuscript which provides a sensible rendition of the passage’s meaning. It tells the same story as the passage from Daniel that we heard on Tuesday: the succession of empires leading to an everlasting reign of God.

This background should warn us not to take apocalyptic literature literally. Then how are we to understand it? We might spiritualize its meaning: we must struggle against the evil in our lives, be it lust, pride, or hatred. Or we might allow the stories to remind us that other people in the world live today with the same kind of oppression as the ancients: Tibetans, Chechens, and Mynamarians come to mind. Or we might appropriate the hope offered by these texts as the future of the earth: a time of universal peace, goodwill, and friendship among all nations under God.