By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas
The Prophet Daniel is one of the four great Prophets. He lived at the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th century B.C. He belonged to the tribe of Judah, was of royal lineage, and was born in Upper Beth-horon. He was taken captive to Babylon when he was about sixteen years old, and there he grew up and was educated. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, renamed him Belteshazzar and distinguished him among the children of the Hebrews, just as he also singled out three other youths — Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael — whom he kept at the imperial court and had educated. Indeed, because they excelled in their studies, he granted them high positions in the State.
When Nebuchadnezzar, out of arrogance, constructed a golden image of himself and demanded that all his subjects worship it, Daniel was absent on a mission. Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael refused to worship it, because they had learned to worship and serve only the true God of their Fathers and not lifeless idols; according to the word of God in the Old Testament: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” For this reason “they were cast into the burning fiery furnace.” Yet, instead of being burned, they were refreshed as by dew, for the Son and Word of God, “the Angel of Great Counsel,” descended into the furnace and transformed the fire into coolness.
Later, the same miracle occurred also with Daniel, when Darius cast him into the den with the hungry lions, which did not touch him, because the “Angel of Great Counsel” was with him. Darius had ordered that no one offer any special prayer for thirty days, and Daniel did not obey. When, however, Darius saw this great miracle — that Daniel remained unharmed in the den of lions — he kept him at his court, and thus Daniel “came to his end in peace” at a deep old age. Daniel, with the prophetic gift he had received from God, foretold the Incarnation of the Son and Word of God. Finally, he was deemed worthy to see the return of the Jews to their homeland; but because he had grown old he was unable to travel to Palestine, though his heart was always there.
His life and conduct give us occasion to emphasize the following:
First, steadfastness in faith draws the blessing and protection of God. The greatest wealth of a person is the presence of God in his life and throughout his entire being. After all, what matters for each person is who he truly is, not how many material goods he possesses. In Holy Scripture and the Fathers of the Church, as well as in ancient Greek philosophy, a clear distinction is made between “being” and “having.” As it is emphasized, "‘being’ refers to the essence, identity, and worth of a person, whereas ‘having’ refers to the possession of material goods and external things.” For example, Aristotle in his work "Rhetoric" speaks of wealth and nobility, maintaining that “true wealth is not the possession of material goods (‘having’), but the development of virtues and the cultivation of character (‘being’).” That is, according to Aristotle, wealth is identified with “being” and not with “having.” According to the teaching of the Church, as expressed in Holy Scripture and by its infallible interpreters, the Holy Fathers, the true and inalienable wealth is the Grace of God within the existence of the human person, in his soul and body.
When the heart is purified from the passions, then a person becomes a “temple of the living God,” within whom “God dwells and walks,” as the Apostle Paul emphasizes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians. He writes: “For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” Then the person acquires inner fullness and meaning in life, since he was created by God to have communion with Him. Otherwise, without the Grace of God, he is inwardly empty, even if he possesses immeasurable material wealth. By contrast, the presence of God within his being makes him rich, even if he is poor in material goods, and he is fully content with what is necessary, with “food and clothing.” Wishing to stress this truth, the Apostle Paul writes that we Apostles are poor in material goods, yet we enrich many; we have nothing, yet we possess everything — that is, God. We journey in this present, temporary life “as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all.” This holds true for all the genuine disciples of Christ.
Second, Christ is presented by the Prophet Daniel as the mighty “stone” that is cut out and strikes the statue of Nebuchadnezzar on its feet and crushes it. There is not the slightest doubt that the “stone” is Christ, who became man in order to defeat the devil and sin, to abolish death, and to shatter the idols through which the devil operates. Indeed, Christ Himself confirmed this prophecy — that He Himself is the “stone” — when He addressed the Scribes and Pharisees, who did not believe that He was the Son of God, the God-man Jesus Christ, and said to them: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?'” And He went on to add: “Therefore I say to you that the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”
Those who truly love Christ and strive to keep all His commandments will never be put to shame, and the structure of their lives will remain unshaken, no matter how many storms and tempests beat against it, because it rests upon the unshakable rock, upon the “chosen” and “precious stone,” Christ. This, as has been said, is contained in Holy Scripture and is repeated by the Apostle Peter: “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious; and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
