Friday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112511.cfm

Piles of driftwood on the
Pacific Shore, Washington

After this, in the visions of the night I saw the fourth beast,
different from all the others,
terrifying, horrible, and of extraordinary strength;
it had great iron teeth with which it devoured and crushed,
and what was left it trampled with its feet.

Biblical scholars interpret the several animals of Daniel's vision as the empires that had conquered Jerusalem before the book was written. The Seer then prophesied the coming of God's empire when the Chosen People would finally be delivered. He and his people hoped it would come very soon; they were barely hanging on and needed immediate deliverance. 

Salvation comes in that form more often in movies, fantasies and apocalyptic scenarios than in our lived, historical experience; but we should never give up hope. And that's the main point. 

As I read this prophesy I am struck by the violence that people must, and do, survive. I have not been to war; I have never lived in a war zone. I hope I never  do. The United States has survived only two wars on its own land since our founding, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Both were devastating. We have also survived two massive assaults; the first by one of our own citizens in Oklahoma City; the other, 9/11. 

But we have not seen monstrous regimes with great iron teeth creating havoc through decades  and centuries of warfare, as they have in Europe and Asia. It's hard to imagine how families could bear and raise children under such circumstances. And yet they do. 

Sometimes they are Christian families who keep the faith in their secret places despite the mortal threats. English and Irish Catholics kept the faith through centuries of persecution. Japanese Catholics had become so inured to the persecution they would not reveal themselves even when Roman Catholic missionaries were welcomed back to the Island. 

Sometimes we think we could never survive this or that catastrophe. Some people say they'll move to Canada if this or that party wins the next election! But, when the worse happens, they don't.

God has built into our spines enormous courage, and sometimes we need all of it to survive in the world we have made. As we prepare to hear again the story of Joseph and Mary's trek into Egypt, we pray that God will kindle in us the courage to meet our daily challenges.