34th Week in Ord. Time, Wednesday – 29th Nov. 2023 – Dan 5,1-6.13-17.23-28; Lk 21,12-19
Impending Doom and Hope
The first reading presents the account of the divine “writing on the wall” during the royal banquet offered by the King Belshazzar to the nobles and leaders in the Babylonian palace. The king and his guests use golden, and other precious metal, vessels looted from the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the beginning of the Exile. While the party-goers are feasting, a hand is seen writing three words on the wall of the palace: Mene, Tekel, Peres. Daniel, the Jewish dream and vision interpreter, is called in to explain what it means. Daniel uses the occasion to predict the end of the Babylonian rule and the overthrow of his government by the Persians. There were three main accusations brought against Belshazzar: he sinned not through ignorance but through disobedience and pride; he defied God by desecrating the sacred vessels; and he worshipped man-made idols instead of the mighty God. Although the “writing on the wall” was a message of impending doom for the Babylonian king, it was a message of hope for God’s people, who will see the end of the oppression with the fall of this empire. No ruler, however powerful, can maintain a regime that goes against the values of God.
