A reflection on the Roman Catholic bible readings for today

Reading 1, Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28  

1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen, a thousand of them, and, in the presence of this thousand, he drank his wine. 2 Having tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him could drink out of them. 3 The gold and silver vessels taken from the sanctuary of the Temple of God in Jerusalem were brought in, and the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him drank out of them. 4 They drank their wine and praised their idols of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone. 

5 Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall, directly behind the lamp-stand; and the king could see the hand as it wrote. 6 The king turned pale with alarm: his hip-joints went slack and his knees began to knock. 

13 Daniel was brought into the king’s presence; the king said to Daniel, ‘Are you the Daniel who was one of the Judaean exiles brought by my father the king from Judah? 14 I am told that the spirit of the gods lives in you, and that you are known for your perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom. 16 I am told that you are able to give interpretations and to unravel difficult problems, so if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round your neck, and be one of the three men who govern the kingdom.’

17 Then Daniel spoke up in the presence of the king. ‘Keep your gifts for yourself,’ he said, ‘and give your rewards to others! I can certainly read the writing to the king and tell him what it means. 23 You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and the women singing for you have drunk your wine out of them. You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which can neither see, hear nor understand; but you have given no glory to the God in whose hands are your breath itself and all your fortunes. 24 That is why he has sent the hand which has written these words. 25 The writing reads: mene, mene, teqel and parsin.

26 The meaning of the words is this: mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it;

27 teqel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting;

28 parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.’

Gospel, Luke 21:12-19

12 ‘But before all this happens, you will be seized and persecuted; you will be handed over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name 13 -and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Make up your minds not to prepare your defence, 15 because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. 17 You will be hated universally on account of my name, 18 but not a hair of your head will be lost. 19 By your patience you will possess your souls.

 The Greek king Antiochus 4th had stolen and desecrated sacred vessels from the Temple in Jerusalem. This episode in the story of Daniel is aimed at him. Its exemplary drama has given us the phrase “The writing is on the wall”, now used to describe a future outcome which appears all too evident. It seems that the divine hand wrote in Hebrew, which normally uses only consonantal signs, leaving the vowels to be guessed. At first sight, Daniel would have interpreted the words as three coins, the mina, the shekel and the half mina, signifying perhaps the relative power of successive Babylonian kings; but he, with a prophet’s understanding, reads them as mena (he counted, teqal (he weighed) peras (he divided, this last word also being a pun on paras (Persians).  The truth written by the hand is already known to Belshazzar; it confirms what he suspects. His reckless use of the sacred vessels for carousing reveals him as complicit in his own doom.

 Maybe every church this Sunday should simply read out the judgement on our civilization given by our own scientists: it is doomed to ecological degradation brought about by its own reckless arrogance and greed. The writing is on the wall, but many refuse to see it.  In Jesus’ prophecy (above), disciples are asked to act in his name. This does not refer to pious prattling, but to action in the character of Jesus, who was passionate for the welfare of his people. Many wise people are already making their own witness on climate change, some of them Christians. If the entire Church were to treat the issue as of first priority for its own life, it might be hated “ on account of Jesus’ name”, but it might also join those who by patience possess their souls.