Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azaris and Misael
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all once again on our community's feast day, the feast day of the Prophet Daniel and the three youths Ananias, Azarias, and Misael! May the Lord, through their prayers, grant us courage and wisdom, and give us the ability to always remain faithful to our Creator even among atheists, unbelievers, and godless people. It's no wonder that the early Christians, wherever they gathered, always had two icons in the catacombs: the Prophet Daniel with his hands raised amidst lions, and the three youths in a fiery furnace. Because for them, this was the most relevant subject; they lived in the lions' mouths, not figuratively, but literally. They could be thrown to the lions at any time. We sometimes lack this state of mind and this attitude toward this world. Many people desire to make peace with this world. The sense that atheism is the fires of hell, already burning, has been lost. And the youths remembered well that the iniquities of this world are the beginning of hell, literally. As Honoratus of Arles, a fourth-century saint, said: "There are two hells, the upper and the lower, and the upper, which is earth, is the worse."
As the Apostle James said: "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes the enemy of God" (James 4:4).
If we don't understand this principle, we won't be saved. But if we, like these three youths, serve God no matter what, we will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if hundreds of thousands of people fall on their knees before idols, we must stand firm. This feeling must be within us, and then we will overcome. And then, at the most terrible moment, already in the very heart of the furnace, like these youths, crowned with pitch, brushwood, and oil, we will meet the One who is in this flame, and whose "form is like the Son of God" (Dan. 3:92).
We know Him, after the incarnation His name is Jesus Christ, but even before the incarnation He came to the three youths in the furnace, to the Prophet Daniel in the ditch (an image of His own Resurrection), He will come to us too, because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
But He will come only to those who courageously endure all the temptations of this world, through all the darkness of this world. May God's mercy be with you!
God bless you all!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
