Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
November 27, 2023
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112723.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we begin a series of readings from the Book of Daniel. It is the only time throughout the Liturgical Year that we get a good dose of Daniel. And it is well placed, coming in this final week before Advent.
Daniel is apocalyptic literature, a genre that conveys the author’s perception of the end times through dreams, visions, and prophecies. Like many of our readings of the past weeks, Daniel focuses us on God’s Final Coming into time by interpreting current circumstances in a spiritual light.
Today’s Gospel also focuses us on our “end times”, but in a little different way from Daniel.
Jesus tells the story of the poor widow who gave everything she had for the sake of the poor. This widow, in a sense, already lives in the “end times”, a time when our only “possessions” will be the good we have done in our lives.
Jesus said, “I tell you truly,
Luke 21:3-4
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”
Both these readings orient us to reflect on our lives and times as we approach Advent. This sacred season is the annual reenactment of Christ’s First Coming in order to prepare us for:
- Christ’s daily revelation in our lives
- Christ’s Final Coming at the end of time
All of Daniel’s complex visions and prophecies can feel a little confusing, but we can focus on this:
- God is continually revealing the Face of the Trinity in the ordinary circumstances of time.
- We can open ourselves to this revelation by our humble prayer and good works.
- Staying awake like this in our hearts and souls will allow us to pass seamlessly into God’s Presence when the end times come.
Poetry: Psalm 96 – Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Christ's first and second coming.
Sing to the Lord, ye distant lands,
Ye tribes of every tongue;
His new-discovered grace demands
A new and nobler song.
Say to the nations, Jesus reigns,
God's own almighty Son;
His power the sinking world sustains,
And grace surrounds his throne.
Let heav'n proclaim the joyful day,
Joy through the earth be seen;
Let cities shine in bright array,
And fields in cheerful green.
Let an unusual joy surprise
The islands of the sea:
Ye mountains, sink; ye valleys, rise;
Prepare the Lord his way.
Behold, he comes, he comes to bless
The nations as their God;
To show the world his righteousness,
And send his truth abroad.
But when his voice shall raise the dead,
And bid the world draw near,
How will the guilty nations dread
To see their Judge appear!
Music: Be Thou My Vision
Lavish Mercy 
We know not the day nor the hour.
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