I love puns and wordplay. Poetry and prose. The way skillful writers can take words and make them dance and become pregnant with meaning. Today’s first reading is full of them. One of them begins with a saying we know pretty well. When we see that clearly, something terrible is going to happen, we say we can see “the writing on the wall.” This saying comes directly from this biblical verse. In it, we find the king throwing a great party and committing sacrilege with the holy objects from the temple. A hand appears and writes on the wall, but no one can read or understand it. So, they call for Daniel. Daniel comes, and he reads three words. We miss part of the pun of this story in English. Those words are units of money. It would be like us seeing on the wall the words “penny,” “nickel,” and “dime.” But Daniel doesn’t read them as objects or money; he pronounces them as verbs. Actions. Again with the theme of money, they now mean “weighed,” “measured,” “divided.”
The king has been weighed and measured and “found wanting.” His moral compass is corrupt, and he has committed great sins against God, so his kingdom will be given away. Another play on words is when he says, “your days are numbered.” Things that can be counted are few in number. This king, his kingdom, his life… They are ending. “Your days are numbered” also has that very distinct meaning in our modern-day language.
It might be a little scary to think about this. “Your days are numbered.” “We can see the writing on the wall.” So what can we take from this? How can we apply this to our life, especially in light of our Saints for today? God has tasked us with being His voice. We are the ones supposed to be watching the signs of the times and speaking to the meaning, pronouncing the Gospel to an age that has lost its way. But, like the king in the story, our world is full of people who are simply going through life as if it’s some grand party. They take their bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit, and they profane them. Then, in the name of freedom, instead of doing what they ought to do, they do whatever they “want” to do.
We get comfortable here in this life. In our country that prides itself on freedoms, we often simply sit back and only work on ourselves. The Vietnam martyrs died for their faith. The government required them to commit blasphemy, deny Jesus, and stamp down a crucifix in the mud. They refused. Like those martyrs and like Daniel, we are challenged to speak out for and about our faith. To remind people of what is Holy, what is True. To watch the signs and read the writing on the wall because the end of the liturgical year reminds us that our days are indeed numbered. We only have this life to get it right, and Jesus is coming again; for some, it could even be today.
A reflection on the readings for the Memorial of Saint Andrew Dŭng-Ląc, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs: November 24th, 2021