27 November 2025 – Thursday of the 34th odd week
Homily
We continue our reading of the Book of Daniel. Yesterday we saw him interpreting for King Darius the words miraculously written on the wall of his palace dining room. Today we see Daniel, victim of the jealousy of some, thrown into the lions' den, only to emerge miraculously protected. However, the scene ends in a bloodbath. After rescuing Daniel from the lions' den, King Darius has his accusers thrown in with their wives and children. This is quite far from evangelical morality and respect for the innocent, not to mention respect for human life in general. This story must be interpreted as part of a long history in which the people of Israel experience a God who is close to them, who takes part in their lives, their struggles, their defeats and their victories. We have to wait until the New Testament for the revelation of a God of love and justice.
As for the revelation of the ‘end times’ that Jesus speaks of in his great eschatological discourse, we can now take the rest of his discourse as a whole.
For Jesus, especially if we take all his prophecies on this subject in the three synoptic Gospels, the ‘end times’ do not mean a moment when the created universe will be destroyed and cease to exist. Rather, this expression means the goal, the ultimate purpose towards which the whole course of history is moving. It signifies the ultimate completion of the universe as planned by the Creator, not its destruction. There will be wars, but that will not be the end. There will be earthquakes and natural disasters, but that will not be the end. There will be persecutions, but that will not be the end either. Finally, the Gospel will be preached to all nations, and the Son of Man will appear in all his power and glory. Then the end, the ultimate goal of creation, will be realized. People will be able to lift up their heads because their liberation will have come.
All the great apocalyptic narratives tend not towards destruction, but towards the full realization of the return of the created universe to God, from whose hands it came forth.
Let us rejoice, let us silence all our fears and live not in expectation of the destruction of the world, but in expectation of its full completion - of each one of us and of all creation. God will never destroy what he has created through love, but will transform it by bringing to fullness the seed of divine life that he has placed within it.
- Memoir of Saint Maximus of Riez