November
24, 2015
Memorial
of Saint Andrew Dũng-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
Saint
of the Day: Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions, Martyrs (1745-1862)
Reading
1
31Daniel
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. 32The
head of the statue was pure gold, its
chest and arms were silver, its
belly and thighs bronze, 33the legs iron, its
feet partly iron and partly tile.[1]
34While
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. 35The
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.
36“This
was the dream; the
interpretation we shall also give in the king’s presence.[2] 37You,
O king, are the king of kings; to
you the God of heaven has
given dominion and strength, power and glory; 38men,
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.
39Another
kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours, then
a third kingdom, of bronze, which
shall rule over the whole earth. 40There
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.
41The
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, 42and
the toes partly iron and partly tile, the
kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
43The
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.
44In
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.
45That
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
57“Bless
the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R.
Give glory and eternal praise to him.
58“Angels
of the Lord, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R.
Give glory and eternal praise to him.
59“You
heavens, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R.
Give glory and eternal praise to him.
60“All
you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all
forever.”
R.
Give glory and eternal praise to him.
61“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
Revelation 2:10c
R.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Remain
faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
R.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
5While
some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and
votive offerings,[3]
6Jesus 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.”
7Then
they asked Him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be
when all these things are about to happen?”
8He
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![4]
9When
you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must
happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”
10Then He said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
11There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place;
and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”
Notes on Readings:
[1] Daniel
2:33 - Partly tile: terra cotta tile was much in use among the Babylonians for
decoration and for actual construction.
[2] Daniel
2:36-45 - The four successive kingdoms in this apocalyptic perspective are the
Babylonian (gold), the Median (silver), the Persian (bronze), and the
Hellenistic (iron). The last, after Alexander's death, was divided among his
generals Daniel 2:41-42. The two resulting kingdoms, which most affected the
Jews, were the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt and that of the Seleucids in
Syria, who tried in vain, by war and through intermarriage, to restore the unity of
Alexander's empire (Daniel 2:43). The stone hewn from the mountain is the messianic
kingdom awaited by the Jews (Daniel 2:44-45) . Our Lord made this image personal to Himself; compare with Luke 20:17-18.
[3] Luke
21:5-36 - Jesus' eschatological discourse in Luke is inspired by Mark 13 but
Luke has made some significant alterations to the words of Jesus found there.
Luke maintains, though in a modified form, the belief in the early expectation
of the end of the age (see Luke 21:27, 28, 31, 32, 36), but, by focusing attention throughout the gospel on the
importance of the day-to-day following of Jesus and by reinterpreting the
meaning of some of the signs of the end from Mark 13 he has come to terms with what seemed to the early
Christian community to be a delay of the parousia. Mark, for example, described
the desecration of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans (Mark 13;14) as the apocalyptic symbol (see Daniel 9:27; 12:11) accompanying the
end of the
age and the coming of the Son of Man. Luke (Luke 21:20-24), however, removes the apocalyptic setting and separates
the historical destruction of Jerusalem from the signs of the coming of the Son
of Man by a period that he refers to as "the times of the
Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). See also the footnotes on Matthew 24:1-36 and Mark 13;1-37.
[4] Luke
21:8 - The time ha-s come: in Luke, the proclamation of the imminent end of the
age has itself become a false teaching.
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Dear Humanity,
I personally encourage everyone to emulate JESUS' values on LOVE, FAITH, HOPE
and CHARITY, as the humanity has been a failure; which resulted to the more than two (2) years of pandemic and its after-effects on economy, not only here in the Philippines but worldwide.
And the saddest part of it, is that, it affected the POOREST of the POOR to even extremely be more poorer, in exchange of the affluent to be more richer.
Thank you and may GOD bless you and the whole family to have an enjoyed life's journey at home, Church, schools/universities, corporate commitments, public and places of interest.