In today’s first reading, Daniel 2:
31-45, Daniel interprets Nebuchanezzar’s dream in which the Lord reveals to the
king that all of the kingdoms of his world—and ours, by the way—will eventually
be destroyed. All are fragile. All are temporary. Only one Kingdom will last
and that is the Kingdom of Christ established on Calvary, when Jesus offered atonement for the sins of the world. It is on Calvary that
we have been guaranteed forgiveness of our sins. And how great the sins of the world are! How
horribly ugly is sin—so ugly that Jesus was unrecognizable on the way to
Calvary and on the cross. He looked like a worm, not like a Son of Man. The blood of the New Covenant, unlike the
blood of the Old Covenant, will never be shed again. Death will be no more.
Jesus died once and for all to atone for our disobedience to the Father’s will.
At every Catholic liturgy the death
and resurrection of the Lord is celebrated. God descends from heaven and we
ascend to heaven in every Eucharist; our earthly liturgies become one with the
heavenly liturgy in which Christ takes on Satan and evil, destroying them, triumphing
over them every second of every day. Acknowledging
the heavens opening up and Christ descending upon our altars, we cry out: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven
and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!” We recall Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and
being greeted in the very same way, palm branches laid at His feet and the
crowd shouting: Hosanna in the highest.”
Before going to Calvary and before celebrating the Last Supper, Jesus
entered the Temple and cleansed it. So, too, in the Catholic liturgy, Jesus, in
Communion, enters the Temple of our bodies and cleanses them. Truly, the
Kingdom of God has come. All other kingdoms will be destroyed, as Daniel prophesied
to King Nebuchanezzar!
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