My job is to help people read “The Handwriting on the Wall.” In Daniel 5, King Belshazzar has a Feast for a thousand of his closest friends. During the banquet, a human hand appears and writes on the wall. The King and the couriers are frightened, of course. The King asks can anyone read the handwriting on the wall. It sounds like my Board’s question to me – what’s on the horizon. None of the couriers can read the handwriting on the wall but they tell the king that there are seers and Caldeans who supposedly can interpret the bizarre. They bring them in one by one but they fail. The King gets angry at which time the couriers say there is one more seer to be heard: Daniel an Israelite. The King asks Daniel can you read it. He says he can. The King asks whether Daniel will tell him what it says. Daniel says no. The King offers half his kingdom, but Daniel refuses. Why? Asks the king. Daniel tells him that it already too late; his kingdom will fall that very night.
What is the handwriting on the wall for me and my organization? How do we discern what is right, profitable, good and beneficial? Be with us as we discern. Help us to reject short term fixes that hurt in the long run. Help us figure out the best way to use our people and our resources in such a way that our organization is stronger and we do what you would have us do.
Help me to make an environment where people are reading the signs of the times, are informed by their ethical sensitivities and use their skills to build and market better products and services.
Besides discernment, give us persistence to follow the right path, to make good on our strategy and make choices that make our organization proud. Cure our blindness. Make known our biases and prejudices that make reading the handwriting and the signs of the time incomplete or inaccurate. Give us a wholeness that extends from mission through strategy, action and results. Bless our work.
Section 2: Scripture:Daniel 5:1-17
| Hebrew Scripture | Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes |
| The Writing on the Wall.1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles, with whom he drank.2 Under the influence of the wine, he ordered the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, to be brought in so that the king, his nobles, his consorts, and his concubines might drink from them.3 When the gold vessels taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, had been brought in, and while the king, his nobles, his consorts, and his concubines were drinking 4 wine from them, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
5 Suddenly, opposite the lampstand, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall in the king’s palace. When the king saw the hand that wrote, 6 his face became pale; his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook, and his knees knocked.7 The king shouted for the enchanters, Chaldeans, and diviners to be brought in. “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means,” he said to the wise men of Babylon, “shall be clothed in purple, wear a chain of gold around his neck, and be third in governing the kingdom.” 8 But though all the king’s wise men came in, none of them could either read the writing or tell the king what it meant. 9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly terrified; his face became pale, and his nobles were thrown into confusion. 10 When the queen heard of the discussion between the king and his nobles, she entered the banquet hall and said, “O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts terrify you, or your face become so pale! 11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; during the lifetime of your father he showed brilliant insight and god-like wisdom. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and diviners.12 Because this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, has shown an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, and insight in interpreting dreams, explaining riddles and solving problems, let him now be summoned to tell you what this means.” 13 Then Daniel was brought into the presence of the king. The king asked him, “Are you the Daniel, one of the Jewish exiles, whom my father, the king, brought from Judah? 14 I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you, that you have shown brilliant insight and extraordinary wisdom.15 The wise men and enchanters were brought in to me to read this writing and tell me its meaning, but they could not say what the words meant.16 But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems; now, if you are able to read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be clothed in purple, wear a chain of gold around your neck, and be third in governing the kingdom.” 17 Daniel answered the king: “You may keep your gifts, or give your presents to someone else; but the writing I will read for the king, and tell what it means. Dan 5:7-17 |
The Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore recognize and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics. |
Section 3
You may wish to be silent for a few minutes.
Section 4
In your own words, in your own silence, speak to God.