34th Week in OT 2019 - Monday - Daniel's Obedience in Exile

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, and of course, Daniel in the lion’s den.

The book of Daniel is set in Babylon during the sixth century before Christ. The virtuous and pious sage Daniel and his companions find themselves in the court of a capricious foreign king.

We heard today how the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel 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, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishaal.  These young men had been brought to the table of the heathen king, but insisted on remaining true to the Lord. 

This reading should remind us of the story of old Eleazar and the mother with her seven sons last week from Maccabees, who when ordered by King Artaxerxes to eat pork, refused to break Jewish dietary law. 

Two and a half millennia later, 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.  Christian marriages and families are in disarray.  Four out of five 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, spiritual and religious mediocrity make the Church 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 imitate the faith of Daniel, becoming “intelligent and wise, prudent in judgment” in the ways of the Lord. We must turn ten times the more to seek God, to reject the food of disobedience and draw our strength from the food given to us from heaven, to nourish us, to protect us, to transform our lives. For our readings form Daniel will show us how the Lord works through his faithful ones. How even exile can be a place where God’s power becomes manifest to convert the hearts of the faithless for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - -
 
Lord, sanctify your bishops and priests, and grant them courage to preach the Gospel in its fullness.

Lord, make the lives of parents examples of faith to inspire their children to seek first your heavenly kingdom.

Lord, bring all those who have fallen away back to the sacraments, help them to repent of their sins and desire the life that can only come from you.

Lord, bring comfort to the sick and suffering, charity and care to the destitute and down-trodden, be present through your church to the miserable.

Lord, welcome into your kingdom all the faithful departed, those whose names are written in our parish necrology, all clergy and religious, and X for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.