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The interpretation given in our last chapter helps to explain why the prophetic vision of the great pagan powers, which is as complete and exact as such a vision could be, makes no mention of the greatest power of all, the Roman Empire. It was because this Empire was not a part of the monstrous colossus doomed to destruction but was the abiding material framework and mold of the Kingdom of God. The great powers of the ancient world were merely passing figures upon the stage of history; Rome alone lives forever. The rock of the Capitol was hallowed by the stone of the Bible, and the Roman Empire was transformed into the great mountain which in the prophetic vision sprang from that stone. And what can that stone itself mean except the monarchical power of him who was called the Rock par excellence and on whom the Universal Church, the mountain of God, was founded?
The image of this mysterious stone in the book of Daniel is usually applied to Jesus Christ Himself. It is noteworthy, however, that though Jesus made considerable use of the prophet Daniel in His preaching, yet in speaking of His own person He did not borrow from the prophet the symbol of the stone, but another title which He used almost as His own name: the Son of Man. It is this very name which He employs in the crucial passage of St. Matthew: Quem dicunt homines esse Filium Hominis? Jesus is the Son of Man seen by the prophet Daniel (Dan. vii. 13) whereas the stone (Dan. ii. 34, 35, 45) does not directly denote Jesus, but rather the fundamental authority of the Church, to the first representative of which this symbol was applied by the Son of Man Himself: Et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus.
The context of the prophecy of Daniel directly confirms our view, for it speaks of a Kingdom coming from God, but nevertheless visible and earthly, destined to conquer, destroy and replace the great pagan Empires. The appearance and triumph of this fifth Kingdom, which in a parallel passage is called “the people of the saints of the Most High” (Dan. vii. 18, 27) and which is obviously the Universal Church, are symbolically represented by this stone which, after breaking the feet of the colossus, becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth. If, then, the stone mentioned by Daniel directly denoted Christ, it would follow that it was Christ Himself Who became the “great mountain,” or, in other words, the universal monarchy of the Church, to which the pagan Empires gave place. But why should we go out of our way to attribute to the truly inspired author of this wonderful book such confused and incongruous imagery, when there is all the time a clear and harmonious interpretation not only open to us but absolutely forced upon us by the comparison between these prophetic passages and the corresponding passage of the Gospel? Both in Daniel and in St. Matthew we find the Son of Man and the Rock of the Church. Now, it is absolutely certain that the Son of Man, whether in the prophetic book or in the Gospel, denotes one and the same Person, the Messiah; the analogy demands, therefore, that the Rock of the Church bears in both passages the same sense. But in the Gospel the Rock is obviously the prince of the Apostles — tu es Petrus; hence the “stone” of the prophet Daniel must equally foreshadow the original trustee of monarchical authority in the Universal Church, the rock which was taken and hurled not by human hands, but by the Son of the living God and by the heavenly Father Himself revealing to the supreme ruler of the Church that divine-human truth which was the source of his authority.
There is a further remarkable coincidence to be noted. It was the great king of Babylon, the typical representative of false universal monarchy, who saw in a mysterious dream the chief representative of true universal monarchy under the significant image of a stone which was to become his actual name. Moreover, he saw the complete contrast between the two monarchies: the one beginning in the head of gold and ending in feet of clay which crumble to dust, the other beginning in a little stone and ending in a huge mountain which filled the world.
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