Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading, Daniel explains a dream he had, with four terrible beasts. He provides specific details about how horrible and terrifying they look. Then he describes the Ancient One coming on thrones, destroying the beasts and causing them to lose their dominion. This made me think of a song from one of our children’s favorite movies, the VeggieTales. In one of the episodes, they sing
“God is bigger than the boogie man,
he’s bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV,
Oh, God is bigger than the boogie man
And he’s watching out for you and me.”
This children’s lesson is important for us to remember, not only as we read about Daniel’s dream, but in our daily lives, as well. Although the beasts in Daniel’s story with four heads and ten horns are fictional, there are plenty of “beasts” in our society today that are very real. Violence, hunger, greed, prejudice, poverty, addiction, disease, judgment, abuse, anger… the list goes on and on… very real beasts affecting very real people in our world every single day. It’s one thing to help our kids get over their fear of Godzilla or boogie men that do not exist. But what do we tell them about the real monsters in the world? How do we acknowledge that despite the danger of these very real beasts, we still have to go out each day, put one foot in front of the other, and be our best selves? How do we make sense of this for our kids? How do we make sense of it for ourselves?
Over the last few days in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus himself even talks about wrath, judgment, and the terrible calamities that will come upon the earth. Today he tells us that when we see these signs, we can “know that the Kingdom of God is near.” Perhaps we can see God’s kingdom in real ways in our lives, too. We can hold tight to hope because we believe that the second part of Daniel’s dream still carries truth. Daniel sees one like the son of man coming. “He received dominion, glory, and kingship… His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.” As we face these beasts in our world, Jesus brings hope to our lives, to our communities, and to our families. Our God is a God of hope. Jesus offers hope for peace, forgiveness, love, respect, health, and enough abundance for all to thrive. Thank you for believing in this hope. Thank you for everything you do to bring this hope to our world each and every day.
-LeeAnn Meyer