Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Dn 2:31-45

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.

"This was the dream;
the interpretation we shall also give in the king's presence.
You, O king, are the king of kings;
to you the God of heaven
has given dominion and strength, power and glory;
men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell,
he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all;
you are the head of gold.
Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours,
then a third kingdom, of bronze,
which shall rule over the whole earth.
There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron;
it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others,
just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else.
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.
In the lifetime of those kings
the 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 tile, iron, bronze, 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."

Responsorial Psalm Daniel 3:57, 58, 59, 60, 61

R. (59b) Give glory and eternal praise to him.
"Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever."
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
"Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever."
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
"You heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever."
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
"All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever."
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
"All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever."
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.

Alleluia Rv 2:10c

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Remain faithful until death,
and I will give you the crown of life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Lk 21:5-11

While some people were speaking about
how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,
Jesus said, "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."

Then they asked him,
"Teacher, when will this happen?
And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?"
He answered,
"See that you not be deceived,
for many will come in my name, saying,
'I am he,' and 'The time has come.'
Do not follow them!
When you hear of wars and insurrections,
do not be terrified; for such things must happen first,
but it will not immediately be the end."
Then he said to them,
"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues
from place to place;
and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky."

From: Daniel 2:31-45

Daniel Describes the King’s Dream (Continuation)

(Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar,) [31] “You saw, O king, and behold, a great
image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and
its appearance was frightening. [32] The head of this image was of fine gold, its
breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, [33] its legs of iron, its
feet partly of iron and partly of clay. [34] As you looked, a stone was cut out by
no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke
them in pieces; [35] then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold,
all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer
threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them
could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.

Daniel Interprets the King’s Dream

[36] “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. [37] You,
O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom,
the power, and the might, and the glory, [38] and into whose hand he has given,
wherever they dwell, the sons of men, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the
air, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. [39] After you shall
arise another kingdom inferior to you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which
shall rule over all the earth. [40] And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as ir-
on, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things; and like iron which cru-
shes, it shall break and crush all these. [41] And as you saw the feet and toes
partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some
of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the miry clay.
[42] And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom
shall be partly strong and partly brittle. [43] As you saw the iron mixed with miry
clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold toge-
ther, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God
of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sove-
reignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and
bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever; [45] just as you saw that a
stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces
the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made
known to the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpre-
tation sure.”

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Commentary:

2:25-35. Daniel claims no personal credit for knowing the content of the king’s
dream; he makes it plain that God revealed the Secret to him; only God knows
what will happen in the “latter times” (vv. 27-28). We have entered the area of
divine revelation, which is what this book is all about — the world of the End time,
which as yet exists only in the mind of God. Our Lord himself will say that “of
that day and hour no one knows...” (Mt 24:36).

Daniel uses the opportunity to lead the king to the true God, the God of heaven,
who knows all mysteries.

In line with the thread of the story, Daniel first tells the king about the content of
his dream (2:31-35) and then interprets it (3:13-22). The king’s vision is full of sym-
bolism. In the Bible, statues connote idolatry, insofar as they are graven images
(cf Ex 32), even though the passage does not expressly say that the image is an
idol. As one moves from head to feet, the metals used in the statue decrease in
value. In contrast with the materials of the statue are the stone and the mountain,
symbols of solidity and stability. The interpretation reads the metals as represen-
tative of the various kingdoms. This is a classical symbolic image: Hesiod, a
Greek historian of the eighth-to-seventh century BC, in his book “Works and
Days”, 199-201, had used the very same metals and in the same order to signify
periods of history; something similar is to be found in Polybius (”Historia”, 38, 22)
and other classical authors. Now, in Daniel’s vision, the four metals all appear to-
gether, at the same time, so to speak—a sign that, for God, history is all of a
piece.

The image with “feet of clay” (vv. 32-33) is often taken as a reminder that human
nature is frail and that nevertheless it is endowed with precious gifts from God:
“Our Lord and our God: how great you are! It is you who give our life supernatural
meaning and divine vitality. For love of your Son, you cause us to say with all our
being, with our body and soul: ‘He must reign!’ And this we do against the back-
ground of our weakness, for you know that we are creatures made of clay — and
what creatures! Not just feet of clay, but heart and head too” (St. Josemaria Es-
crivá, “Christ Is Passing By”, 181).

2:36-45. Daniel is not being sycophantic by addressing the king as he does in
vv. 37-38; he is simply saying that the king has an impressive empire because
he has been given it by God, who rules over all things; he wants the king to see
that the power and glory that he enjoys are part of God’s plans. The other metals
(silver, bronze, iron), as one can deduce from the rest of the book, stand for the
empires of the Medes, Persians and Greeks, though that interpretation is not
perfectly clear because the silver could stand for the empire of the Medes and
Persians together. The divided kingdom made of clay and iron is a reference to
the Greek empire after the death of Alexander the Great (cf. 11:4) and to the po-
litical marriages made between the Seleucid and Lagid Greeks (Antiochus II
marrying Bernice; Ptolemy V marrying Cleopatra: cf. 11:6, 17) that failed to bring
about unity or union. This passage would have been composed when the Seleu-
cids and Lagids were at loggerheads, and it was against the same background
that the prophecy about the end of time seeing the establishment by God of an
everlasting kingdom was made (God’s action is symbolized by the stone that
strikes the image; there is no sign of any human power at work). It does not say
here who will be given the kingdom, but in the light of 7:26 and the fact that it
says that the kingdom will not be left to another people (v. 44), the implication
is that it will be given to faithful Israelites.

The symbol of the stone has a messianic dimension insofar as it is the means
by which the everlasting kingdom will be established and the previous kingdoms
destroyed. There are echoes here of images in other prophetical works and in
the psalms. Isaiah speaks of God as a “stone of offense”, a stumbling-block for
Israel (cf. Is 8:14) and in Psalm 118:22 the people of God are compared to a
stone which the builders have rejected and which has become the cornerstone.
In the New Testament that stone is Christ, and the kingdom which he ushers
in is the Kingdom of God which will be taken from Israel, to be given to another
people that will produce fruit (cf. Mt 21:42-43); Christ also says that anyone who
falls on that stone will be broken to pieces (cf. Lk 20:17-18). Using this Christo-
logical interpretation of the stone, some Fathers interpret the mountain from
which the stone comes as being the Blessed Virgin, and the stone cut off “by
no human hand” as an image of the conception of Jesus in the Virgin’s womb
without the involvement of a man: “When Daniel says that the one who inherits
the eternal kingdom is like a son of man, who can he mean, if not the Lord him-
self? For he was born of a woman, like a son of man, but he showed that his
life and power were not of human origin. To say that he is a stone that moves
under no external force is a mysterious description: it means that Christ is not
the fruit of the work and will of men; he is the fruit of the providence of God, the
Father of the universe” (St Justin, “Dialogus Cum Tryphone”, 76, 1).

The interpretation of the dream, the message it contains, would interest the rea-
der of the book—but not Nebuchadnezzar, who died centuries earlier. It describes
how, after the kingdoms of this world which succeed one another over the course
of history, an everlasting kingdom will be established by God himself — a kingdom
surpassing any that man could create. A Christian will read this as heralding the
Kingdom of Christ, although that will not be an earthly, political kingdom, but a
spiritual one, as Jesus will tell Pilate at his trial: “My kingship is not of this world”
(Jn 18:36).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 21:5-11

Discourse on the Destruction of Jerusalem and the End of the World

[5] And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and
offerings, He (Jesus) said, [6] “As for these things which you see, the days will
come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be
thrown down.” [7] And they asked Him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what
will be the sign when this is about to take place?” [8] And He said, “Take heed
that you are not led astray; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’
and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. [9] And when you hear of wars
and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not
be at once.”

[10] Then He said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom; [11] there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and
pestilences; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

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Commentary:

5-36. The disciples are in awe of the magnificence of the temple, and Jesus uses
the occasion to give a long discourse, known as the “eschatological discourse”
because it has to do with the last days of the world. The account given here is
very similar to those in the other Synoptic Gospels (cf. Mt 24:1-51; Mk 13:1-37).
The discourse deals with three inter-connected subjects — the destruction of Je-
rusalem (which took place some forty years later), the end of the world, and the
second coming of Christ in glory and majesty. Jesus, who also predicts here the
persecution the Church will experience, exhorts His disciples to be patient, to
pray and be watchful.

Our Lord speaks here in the style and language of prophecy, using images taken
from the Old Testament; also, in this discourse prophecies which are going to be
fulfilled very soon are mixed in with others which have to do with the end of the
world. It is not our Lord’s intention to satisfy people’s curiosity about future events,
but to protect them from being discouraged and scandalized about what is going
to happen in the days immediately ahead. This explains why He exhorts them:
“Take heed that you are not led astray” (v. 8); “do not be terrified” (v. 9); “watch
at all times” (v. 36).

8. On hearing that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, the disciples ask what
sign will be given as a warning of these events (vv. 5-7). Jesus answers by telling
them “not to be led astray,” that is to say, not to expect any warning; not to be
misled by false prophets; to stay faithful to Him. These false prophets will come
along claiming to be the Messiah (”I am He!”). Our Lord’s reply in fact refers to
two events which in the Jewish mind were interrelated — the destruction of the
Holy City and the end of the world. This is why He goes on to speak of both
events and implies that there will be a long gap between the two; the destruction
of the temple and of Jerusalem are a kind of sign or symbol of the catastrophes
which will mark the end of the world.

9-11. Our Lord does not want His disciples to confuse just any catastrophe —
famine, earthquake, war — or even persecution with the signals of the end of the
world. He exhorts them quite clearly: “Do not be terrified,” because although all
these has to happen, “the end will not be at once;” in spite of difficulties of all
kinds the Gospel will spread to the ends of the earth. Difficulties should not pa-
ralyze the preaching of the faith.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading	Daniel 2:31-45 ©

Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream

Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, ‘You have had a vision, O king; this is what you saw: a statue, a great statue of extreme brightness, stood before you, terrible to see. The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet part iron, part earthenware. While you were gazing, a stone broke away, untouched by any hand, and struck the statue, struck its feet of iron and earthenware and shattered them. And then, iron and earthenware, bronze, silver, gold all broke into small pieces as fine as chaff on the threshing-floor in summer. The wind blew them away, leaving not a trace behind. And the stone that had struck the statue grew into a great mountain, filling the whole earth. This was the dream; now we will explain to the king what it means.

‘You, O king, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength and glory – the sons of men, the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven, wherever they live, he has entrusted to your rule, making you king of them all – you are the golden head. And after you another kingdom will rise, not so great as you, and then a third, of bronze, which will rule the whole world. There will be a fourth kingdom, hard as iron, as iron that shatters and crushes all. Like iron that breaks everything to pieces, it will crush and break all the earlier kingdoms. The feet you saw, part earthenware, part iron, are a kingdom which will be split in two, but which will retain something of the strength of iron, just as you saw the iron and the clay of the earthenware mixed together. The feet were part iron, part earthenware: the kingdom will be partly strong and partly weak. And just as you saw the iron and the clay of the earthenware mixed together, so the two will be mixed together in the seed of man; but they will not hold together any more than iron will blend with earthenware. In the time of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not pass into the hands of another race: it will shatter and absorb all the previous kingdoms, and itself last for ever – just as you saw the stone untouched by hand break from the mountain and shatter iron, bronze, earthenware, silver and gold. The great God has shown the king what is to take place. The dream is true, the interpretation exact.’

Responsorial Psalm	Daniel 3:57-61 ©

All things the Lord has made, bless the Lord.