Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - Thirty-fourth Wednesday in Ordinary Time
[Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 and Luke 21:12-19]Suddenly, opposite the lampstand, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall in the king's palace. When the king saw the wrist and hand that wrote, his face blanched; his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook, and his knees knocked.
How many times have we heard (or perhaps experienced) the "handwriting on the wall?" It could be a warning from our physician of dire consequences if we don't change our diet, or from our preacher if we don't change our moral behavior, or our employer if we don't produce more........the list could go on. Belshazzar's reaction may remind us of the old Caspar the Friendly Ghost movies, but perhaps all the booze at the banquet sufficed to produce a more dramatic reaction! I have had more than one person come to see me after an incident that warned them dramatically of possible dire consequences. Sometimes the consequences have already come about because the "handwriting on the wall" was ignored or never seen because of blindness. This is particularly true in marriages that break up, but the other examples I mentioned above hold true as well. We hope that such a message will not be necessary for us, but often we simply think that the message is meant for somebody else. With the Advent season fast approaching, we might want to read Dickens' classic about Scrooge and Tiny Tim! The Ghosts of the past, present and future were Scrooge's handwriting on the wall. The Lord warns us that our actions can have consequences and even our thoughts are known to God. What kind of handwriting will we recognize? In point of fact, the gospel is precisely that! AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
52 ms
4
