34th Week in Ordinary Time
Catherine of Alexandria

1st Reading: Dn 5:1–6, 13–14, 16–17, 23–28
Gospel: Lk 21:12–19
Jesus said to his disciples, “People will lay their hands on you and persecute you; you will be delivered to the Jewish courts and put in prison, and for my sake you will be brought before kings and governors. This will be your opportunity to bear witness.
“So keep this in mind: do not worry in advance about what to answer, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
“You will be betrayed even by parents, and brothers, by relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. But even though you are hated by all for my name’s sake, not a hair of your head will perish. Through perseverance you will possess your own selves.

Commentary
Today, we learn the origin of the saying: the writing on the wall! The writing on the wall is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. To attribute to someone the ability to ‘read the writing on the wall’ has come to signify the ability to foresee…not necessarily supernaturally…an inevitable decline and end.
On the night the mighty Babylon fell to the Persians, writing appeared on the palace wall, written with the finger of God. The wicked king and his astrologers were baffled. They could not read nor interpret what the writing meant! Then the terrified king called for Daniel the prophet. By the light of a candlestick, Daniel both decoded and interpreted the writing. It foretold the immediate end of Babylon and her king. On that same night the king of Babylon was slain by the Persian conquers; a new era was born. The writing on the wall is comparable to the greatest writing of all: the Bible. Like the writing on the wall, some things in the Bible are hard to understand, apart from God’s help. Only by the light of the candlestick, that is by the Spirit of God, can we understand its mysteries.

________
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc., 8 Mayumi St., U.P. Village, Diliman, Quezon City, U.P. P.O. Box 4, Diliman, 1101 Quezon City; Tel. No. (02) 921-39-84; Fax No.: (02) 921-62-05 E-mail: cci@claret.org; Websites: http://www.claretianbpublication.com (Claretian Publications) & http://www.claretphilippines.org (Claretian Missionaries in the Philippines) Claretian HOPE CENTER: Aurora Milestone Tower, 1045 Aurora Blvd., Loyola Heights, Quezon City E-mail: hopecenter07@yahoo.com/hopecenter07@gmail.com