Word to the Wise

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 - Tuesday in the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

[Dan 2:31-45 and Luke 21:5-11]
"The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future; this is exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure." [Daniel] "All that you see here - the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down." [Luke]



     The Book of Daniel is the most recent of the four major prophets to be composed. [Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel...] and was written largely to encourage and edify Jews suffering at the hands of the Greek rulers of the Holy Land.  It is also the favorite of those who delight in figuring out when "the end" will come because it is filled with apocalyptic and symbolic passages.  In this sense, it is more like the Book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament.
     The dream of the king of Babylon and Jesus' statement about the temple in Jerusalem are both prophetic and apocalyptic.  Babylon would eventually fall to the Persians.  Jerusalem would eventually be destroyed by the Romans.  The enduring "kingdom of God" in Daniel seems echoed in the kingdom preached by Jesus.
     Fascination with ancient kingdoms like Babylon, Egypt, Rome, Greece, Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, etc. is nothing new.  Sometimes, it involves a highly symbolic location like the "Wailing Wall" (remnant of the temple) in Jerusalem, or the catacombs in Rome - places that attract pilgrims to pray.  The enduring lesson is that  "great civilizations" come and go.  God's kingdom alone will stand the test of time.  If it was hard for the   disciples to imagine the newly restored temple reduced to a pile of rubble, can we imagine the same for St. Peter's in Rome?  What will history and archaeology have to say about us?  AMEN

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