Daily Catholic Lectio
Tue, 25 November ‘25
Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday
Daniel 2:31-45. Luke 21:5-11
The Other Side of the Temple
The Gospel today invites us to pause before the splendour of the Jerusalem Temple—and then to walk with Jesus to its other side. Some stood marvelling at its stones and votive offerings. Jesus did not deny its beauty, its history, or its sacredness. Yet He gently lifted their eyes beyond the façade: “The days will come when not one stone will be left upon another.” He was not destroying their wonder; He was revealing the hidden truth that every earthly glory has another side—fragility, impermanence, and the call to place our trust in God alone.
This is the thread that runs through Scripture and through life. We often look only at one side of things. We admire the polished surface of the wood, not noticing the roughness on the back. We look at the colourful photograph, forgetting the plain paper behind it. We see the leaf that glitters in the sun, not its veins that strain in the wind. We notice the flower’s beauty, not the soil that silently nourishes it. We see a person’s strength or charm, not the hidden burden they carry. True wisdom sees both sides at once.
Qoheleth stands on the mountain and proclaims the same truth: there is “a time to be born and a time to die… a time to embrace and a time to refrain… a time to speak and a time to be silent… a time to love and a time to hate” (Eccl 3:2–8). Life is not one-sided. Wisdom is the grace to hold opposites together, to see God’s hand in both times.
This is exactly what Jesus does today. People admire the Temple—its stones, its offerings, its magnificence. Jesus sees all that. But He also sees what they do not: the coming destruction, the signs of turmoil, the fragility beneath the splendour. When the Romans eventually destroyed the Temple, His words proved true. Jesus was not a doomsayer; He was a truth-teller. He invites His disciples not to cling to what passes, but to anchor themselves in what endures.
The first reading deepens this insight. Nebuchadnezzar sees a dream—only one side of it. Its meaning, its true weight, its “other side” is not accessible to kings or power. It is revealed to Daniel because he receives the wisdom of God. Human sight sees the surface; divine wisdom opens the depth.
To see the other side of life, we need God’s eyes. Often, we reject the other side because it challenges our comfort. Sometimes, we exaggerate it and fall into fear. At other times, we simply ignore it, pretending it does not exist.
But faith teaches us to integrate both sides: the visible and the invisible, the present and the future, the beautiful and the broken, the temple that stands and the stones that fall.
Seeing both sides does not diminish joy; it purifies it. It frees us from attachment, from panic, from disappointment. It teaches us to love without clinging, to hope without illusion, to live without fear. It helps us look at our own life with honesty: our gifts and our limitations, our achievements and our wounds, our strengths and our surrender.
When we look at life only from one side, we live shallowly. When we learn to see the other side, we begin to live wisely.
As we stand before our own “temples”—our plans, our positions, our successes—Jesus invites us to step to the other side. There, we discover the truth that only God remains, that only His kingdom endures, that only His love sustains.
May the Lord grant us eyes that see not only what glitters, but also what matters. May He help us stand not only before the Temple, but also on its other side. There, in that deeper space, we will find wisdom, freedom, and hope.
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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