Tonight’s first two readings also look to the future from a desperate present. They, too, come from times of distress during two different periods of persecution. The book of Daniel was written when the Jewish people were being persecuted by the Seleucid Empire in the second century B.C.E. The Second Reading, from the book of Revelation, reflects the persecution of the early church by the Roman Empire under Nero. But both readings are calls to hope and to trust that God will be victorious, no matter