Time’s up!
But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
The Gospel reading is from Luke 21, where Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Not the “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” from John 2:19. This is the real destruction of the Temple, which will happen almost 40 years later. We get a brief look at the end-time signs and a warning not to be deceived by those who claim, ‘I am he’ and ‘The time has come.’
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Daniel 2:31-45
Luke 21:5-11
Time’s Up!
I could always tell how well I was prepared for a test in college when the professor would announce “Time’s up!,” a bit of verbal shorthand for “the time that you were allowed to show that you what you had learned in the past few weeks has run out . . . I hope you were ready!”
I felt good when I had time to go back over all my answers and maybe add some clarifying notes. Wherever possible, “show your work.” If, on the other hand, I ran out of time and left one or more questions unanswered, I knew that things were not going well, that the end was near.
We have an interesting set of readings for today. Perhaps these were scheduled to coincide with the end of the liturgical year. Advent starts this coming Sunday!
Our first reading comes from the 2nd chapter of Daniel, from the Old Testament. Daniel, a Hebrew man of great wisdom, successfully interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. That in itself seems like a pretty remarkable task, but the story is WAY more interesting if you start at the beginning of the chapter.
In the second year of his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that left his spirit no rest and robbed him of his sleep. He summoned all the known wise men throughout Babylon and said to them, “I had a dream which will allow my spirit no rest until I know what it means. This is what I have decided: unless you tell me the dream and its meaning, you shall be cut to pieces and your houses made into a refuse heap.” There seems to be some trust issues here. Nebuchadnezzar won’t tell them the dream; they must be “wise” enough to divine the dream as well as what it means.
They answered that it is too difficult; no one can tell it to the king except the gods, who do not dwell among people of flesh. Wrong answer! The enraged king ordered all the wise men in Babylon to be put to death. Daniel and three other captured Israelites (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) were among the wise men. In Daniel 1:17, we are told God gave them knowledge and proficiency in all literature and wisdom, and to Daniel, the understanding of all visions and dreams.
Daniel went home and informed his companions that they might implore the mercy of the God of heaven regarding this mystery, so that the four of them might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night, Daniel received a vision revealing the mystery.
We join Daniel in our first reading as he first describes the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, followed by its interpretation.
Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:
“In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,
very large and exceedingly bright,
terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.
The head of the statue was pure gold,
its chest and arms were silver,
its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,
its feet partly iron and partly tile.
While you looked at the statue,
a stone which was hewn from a mountain
without a hand being put to it,
struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.
The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once,
fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer,
and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace.
But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth. [Daniel 2:31-35]
Scholars tell us that the four metals used in the statue represent the four empires that will rule the biblical world, beginning with King Nebuchadnezzar's Neo-Babylonian Empire (612-539 BC). It is represented by the gold head on the statue in the dream. Very valuable, but not very strong.
The other empires to follow are represented by increasingly strong metals, but of lesser value. The silver chest and arms represent Medo-Persia, the bronze torso is Greece, and the iron legs are Rome.
The entire statue is supported by a mixture of feet that really weakens the structure. I’ll let Daniel do the ‘splaining:
The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter’s tile and partly of iron,
mean that it shall be a divided kingdom,
but yet have some of the hardness of iron.
As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,
and the toes partly iron and partly tile,
the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
The iron mixed with clay tile
means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage,
but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay. [Daniel 2:41-43]
So, the future Roman Empire will have problems. He called that one right.
The statue was then destroyed by “a stone which was hewn from a mountain without a hand being put to it,” turned to dust, and blown away. Who threw that? Daniel tells us:
“God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever."
That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn from the mountain without a hand being put to it, which broke in pieces the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. 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 2:44-45]
Daniel and his three friends have earned a promotion! They become the new and improved wise men for Babylon.
But it doesn’t last long. The king has a gargantuan golden image created and then calls on everyone to worship it. Daniel’s three companions decline the offer, and the furious King Nebuchadnezzar has Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown in the fiery furnace. God sends an angel down to protect them, and the three praised, glorified, and blessed God from inside the furnace with an extended song. We hear part of the song in today’s Responsorial Psalm, which I guess is really a Responsorial Daniel.
The three emerge from the fiery furnace unscathed, and “no smell of fire had come upon them.” The king decides their God is more powerful than any other god and grants them safety.
The Gospel reading is from Luke 21, where Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Not the “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” from John 2:19. This is the real destruction of the Temple, which will happen almost 40 years later. We get a brief look at the end-time signs and a warning not to be deceived by those who claim, ‘I am he’ and ‘The time has come.’ For more signs and precautions, you should read to the end of the chapter.
Time’s up!
As predicted, ‘the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.’ Isn’t that the same stone that we know from Psalm 118:22, which states, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
Let’s get ready for a blessed Advent!
Dear Steve,
Inspiring reflection for a good start for Advent! I really appreciate your reference to tests and your research which pulled it all together. I am sure you passed all your tests!
Joanne