Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures we are all presented with the vision that the prophet Daniel received regarding the end of times, seeing what St. John the Apostle later on also saw as was written in his own Book of Revelations of St. John. We heard of the actions of the devil, Satan, the great enemy of all, and how he was overthrown and crushed by the power of the triumphant God.

This Scripture reading from the Book of the prophet Daniel regarding the coming of the great beasts of the end of times, the manifestation of Satan and his forces that were arrayed against God and His faithful ones, in the final attempt at dominion and power. Through what he had seen, Daniel saw how the devil exercised his power in this world, through the rising of states and forces that persecuted the faithful people of God, as many throughout history suffered for their faith and devotion to God.

However, as we heard from the ending of his vision, he saw the triumphant God reigning over all, destroying that despised great enemy and beast, and in a final victory, cast down that beast and dealt it a final defeat from which it never recovers. This is the same vision and message that St. John the Apostle also later received as recorded in the Book of Revelations, of the triumph of God and all of His faithful ones, and the reign of Christ, as King over all and as the Saviour of all.

Daniel saw Him as the Son of Man, yet unrevealed to the world, given Dominion and Power by the One of Great Age, God the Father, Who was to later come into this world as the Saviour, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Essentially what he saw was a prefigurement of Christ and the salvation that He would bring to the people, in the time to come, and then which message was later reinforced by the similar revelation given to St. John after Christ, the Son of Man and Son of God had revealed Himself and His salvation to all.

And St. John received an even more detailed revelation which described what would happen at the end of days, when Satan, the great beast will persecute the faithful with greater intensity and blaspheme further against God, and many will be forced to choose sides, and many of the people will side with him and only a few will remain faithful to God and His truth. But God will not forget about them or their faith in Him, and He will gather them all, all of us, past, present and future to the end of time to His presence.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we heard in our Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus Himself told His disciples that the coming of the time of reckoning and the end of time will be coming soon, just that we will never know the exact timing of this happening. But what He assured all of His disciples and therefore all of us is that His kingdom and dominion will always endure, no matter what, and in the end, we will be triumphant with Him if we remain faithful and truly dedicated to Him.

The question is, are we all able to commit ourselves to the Lord as we should? Are we able and willing to make the sacrifices knowing that trials and tribulations, challenges and difficulties will always be on our path in life? These are the questions that we should ask ourselves constantly as we navigate our lives in this world. Are we capable of remaining true to our faith and being vigilant at all times, so that in our every actions, deeds, interactions and all that we do, we always proclaim the glory of God to the world.

May the Lord be with us all and may He strengthen each and every one of us to remain strong and courageous in our faith that we do not easily give up our struggle in faith, and that we may always hold strongly to that faith we have in Him. May God bless us in our every actions, now and always, forevermore. Amen.