“The Handwriting on the Wall” by Colleen O’Sullivan
“You have
rebelled against the Lord of heaven. You had the vessels of his temple brought
before you, so that you and your nobles, your wives and your entertainers, might
drink wine from them; and you praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and
iron, wood and stone, that neither see nor hear nor have intelligence. But the
God in whose hand is your life-breath and the whole course of your life, you
did not glorify.” (Daniel 5:23)
Jesus said to the crowd: "They will seize and
persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons, and they
will have you led before kings and governors because of my name… You will even
be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put
some of you to death. All will hate you because of my name, but they will not
destroy a hair on your head. By your perseverance, you will secure your
lives." (Luke 21: 12, 16-19)
Piety
Sun and moon, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him
above all forever. (Daniel 3:62) May I, too, bless You, praise You and exalt You above
all to the end of my days.
Study
 |
| Belshazzar’s Feast, Rembrandt, 1635, National Gallery London, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
The scene of our first
reading is a party thrown by one of King Nebuchadnezzar’s
successors, Belshazzar. The wine is flowing freely, maybe too freely for this king’s
good. After imbibing quite a bit, he makes an impromptu decision: servants
should retrieve the gold and silver vessels people looted from the Temple. This
is done, and he and his guests party on, now drinking from the sacred vessels. That,
in and of itself, creates a sacrilegious scene, but as they desecrate the
Temple’s vessels, they also praise their pagan gods made of metal, wood and
stone.
The
party takes a macabre turn when a human wrist and fingers appear and write on
the wall. Daniel interprets the writing to say that 1) Belshazzar’s kingdom will
not last forever; 2) On a balance scale, the spirits found Belshazzar lacking;
and 3) Belshazzar’s kingdom will be divided between the Persians and Medes.
Not
the kind of party I would enjoy.
In
the Gospel, Jesus tells the listening crowd that they will be persecuted for
their faith, perhaps even by close friends or families. If you throw your lot
in with the Lord, that’s what will happen, he says. This was literally true in
Jesus’ time and for centuries afterward. So what does this passage say to us in
the 21st century in Northern Virginia? Fortunately, there’s not much,
if any, of this type of persecution going on in our midst.
But
people today will try in other ways to get us to give up our faith. Maybe you’re
the only person of faith in your family, and every weekend family or friends
try to lure you away from Mass by dangling what they consider more “fun” activities
before you. Maybe you want to be accepted by your group of friends who are not
believers, so you make fun of Catholic beliefs or practices in their presence
to impress them. That doesn’t have anywhere near the shock value that stealing Communion
vessels from your parish and using them at a raucous party would have. But it’s
a step away from the God who loves us and deserves our praise rather than our
betrayal. And often one step leads to another and then another.
Action
Before we participate in
the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we examine our consciences. For what sins do we
need to ask forgiveness?
Maybe it would be just as
profitable to spend time in prayer considering the things that tempt us to
betray our faith in God. What temptation can you pinpoint?
What would the “handwriting
on the wall” reveal about us?
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