Daily Reflection, November 26, 2025

Reflection:

In Jewish scriptural interpretation, there is the mystical concept of black fire on white fire. The black fire are the words we see on the page, or wall as in the first reading, and the white fire is the space in and around the words. Both fires are to be read and interpreted.

As we come to the very end of the Year of Hope and the liturgical year the readings are quite dire. In the first reading Daniel reads both the black and white fire on the wall which mysteriously appears written by a human hand. The Babylonian King Belshazzar receives no comfort from Daniel’s interpretation, and the king had already acknowledged Daniel as a person of perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom. Belshazzar’s life is come to a rapid end, and Daniel will be thrown into the lion’s den and experience apocalyptic visions but the overall message from the Book of Daniel is that God will save the people from their oppression and the promise of God’s kingdom.

The black fire of today’s Gospel would never work as a recruitment speech! Join the Lukan community following Jesus and be persecuted and imprisoned!  Be betrayed by your family, hated and put to death! What evangelises in the text is what Jesus will give- the promise of wisdom, eloquence and eternal life. The white fire tells us that this is something worth enduring for. Jesus will be ever present and the community around him must be one that is worth being a part of- the love, care and sharing; the experience of the beautiful, good and true must triumph over the reality of what is happening to the community.       

Alison Gore is a parishioner at St Paul of the Cross, Glen Osmond. She works in education and formation.