Homily: 34th Week of Ordinary Time - Monday - Daniel's Obedience

During this final week of the Church’s year, our First Readings are taken from the book of the Prophet Daniel. 

Some of the most famous and arresting stories in the Bible are found in this book, including the three young men in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, the “hand writing on the wall” written by a disembodied hand, prophesying the sudden doom at King Belshazzar’s feast, which we’ll hear proclaimed on Wednesday, and of course, Daniel in the lion’s den.

The name Daniel means “God is my judge”.  And Daniel seemed to prophesy during a time when God was bringing his judgment down upon an Israel who had turned away from the Lord’s commandments, for their idolatry.

And so today we heard how the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar came and carried away some of the children of royal blood, to be brought to the king’s palace to be raised, as Babylonians.  And among these men of Judah were: Daniel, Hannaniah, Azariah, and Mishael.  Yet, these young men, though they had been brought to the table of the heathen king, insisted on remaining true to the Lord. 

This reading should remind us of the story of old Eleazar last week in 1^st Maccabees, who when ordered by King Artaxerxes to eat pork, refused to break Jewish dietary law. 

"In any question of wisdom or prudence which the king put to them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom."  The secret to the exceptional greatness for the four Jewish young men, was in fact their commitment to obey the law, to remain faithful, even while in exile, when all of the supports to their faith were stripped away, when all that they had was what they carried with them, inside of them.  They remained faithful, and there is a great power in obedience. 

At this time, the Church is in exile similar to that of Daniel.  She is tempted by the heathen food of secularism, many of our children have been captured by the glamour of the world.  Our marriages and families are in disarray.  Two out of three registered American Catholics disobey the Lord weekly by not going to Sunday Mass.  The culture’s attitudes of forgiveness, prejudice, impurity, profanity, carnality, perversity bombard the Church.  Instead of being a great light to the nations, disobedience makes the Church so mediocre, like so many secular institutions. 

It is no coincidence that these readings at the end of the liturgical year have to do with being tempted to disobey.  They are a reminder that during these end times, we will be bombarded with temptations from the world. 

Knowing this, we must turn now ten times the more to seek Him, to reject the food of disobedience and draw our strength a from the food given to us from heaven, to nourish us, to protect us, to transform our lives for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.