December: Day 17: The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azariah and Misael

December: Day 17:
The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azariah and Misael
 
(Lessons From Their Lives:
a. The Benefits of Fasting, and
b. Constancy in Faith and Virtue)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azariah and Misael, whose memory is celebrated today, lived during the Babylonian captivity. They were among those youths whom the Babylonian king chose and ordered to be brought up at his court, so that later they could serve in his kingdom. When they were brought from the king's table dishes forbidden by the law of Moses, they refused to take them, wanting to eat only vegetables. The bailiff, who was obliged to watch over them, for fear that they would grow thin from meager food, forbade them this, but Daniel persuaded him to give them a period of ten days to test whether fasting food would be harmful to their health and physical beauty. At the end of this period, it turned out that the pious youths, who ate vegetables and drank plain water, were much healthier and more beautiful than their other peers who ate fasting food. Then Daniel and his companions were allowed to eat whatever food they wanted.

The pious youths were blessed by God with a special gift for learning, so that, after their education was completed, the king himself tested them and found them wiser than all their companions, and therefore gave them good positions in his state. It was soon revealed that Daniel possessed supernatural wisdom, that is, he knew what no other person could know, he knew the future, he was a prophet of God. One day, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and forgot it. He called all the wise men and demanded, under threat of death, that they guess the dream he had forgotten, but no human wisdom could fulfill this; only to Daniel did God reveal the king's dream and its meaning. Nebuchadnezzar recognized the greatness of the true God and said to Daniel: "Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, and the King of kings." Daniel was appointed the chief governor of the Babylonian province. But Nebuchadnezzar's recognition of the true God as the King of kings was not firm and heartfelt. Pride urged Nebuchadnezzar to acknowledge himself as God, or at least to force his subjects to obey him unquestioningly as God, and so he set up a golden idol on the plain of Dura, near Babylon, and issued a decree that his subjects should worship this idol as God. All the nobles, the dignitaries of the Babylonian kingdom, bowed down to the idol; only three youths, Ananias, Azariah, and Misael, refused to carry out the king's command, because this violated the second commandment of the law of God. The pious youths were thrown into a fiery furnace, but the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the scorching power of the fire, made the furnace dewy, so that the youths in the midst of the flames not only remained unharmed, but also sang a song of praise to God the deliverer. All who saw this miraculous salvation, and Nebuchadnezzar himself, gave praise to the true God.

A similar miraculous salvation was shown by God over Daniel, during the reign of Darius, the king of Media. This king especially loved Daniel and wanted to make him one of the chief dignitaries of the state. Other nobles hated Daniel for this and, in order to destroy him, persuaded the king to issue a decree that none of his subjects should dare to ask anything for thirty days either from God or from people, except the king, since the king is so powerful that he is able to satisfy the needs of everyone. The cunning courtiers asserted this false proposal on the grounds that Darius must declare himself a deity so that his subjects would obey and adore him more. Whoever does not fulfill this command, as guilty of disrespect for the king, must be thrown to the lions. King Darius could not guess that this proposal of the courtiers was directed against Daniel, who, being a strict executor of the law of the fatherland, would certainly be found to be a violator of the royal decree. Daniel did not cease to perform the prescribed prayers to the true God three times every day, turning his face in the direction where Jerusalem was. This was reported to the king, and Daniel, by force of the royal decree, was thrown into the lions' den. But the Lord stopped the mouths of the beasts, and the righteous man remained among them the whole night, untouched by the beasts. The king, out of love for Daniel, worried about him all night, in the morning himself came to the lions' den and, finding Daniel unharmed, recognized his innocence, attested by God Himself, and the slander of his enemies. Therefore, having brought Daniel out of the lions' den, he ordered that his accusers with their wives and children be thrown there. The lions immediately tore them all to pieces.

The example of Daniel and the Three Youths should be instructive for us, Christians!

II. The Holy Prophet Daniel and his three holy friends teach us two virtues: a) the benefits of fasting and b) constancy in faith and virtue. As they themselves fasted and as they were faithful to the true God to the point of being ready to sacrifice their lives for holy fidelity to God and virtue, so we too must fast according to the rule of our Holy Mother the Church and be faithful to the Lord all the days of our lives.

a) Let us first of talk about the benefits of fasting.

Fasting has many different benefits.

1) Firstly, fasting tames passions.

Passions cloud our minds, distance us from God, extinguish the fear of God in our hearts, draw us into evil deeds, take away our peace, deprive us of honor, hasten our death, prepare for us, now and on the other side of the grave, a terrible fate.

To our horror, it must be noted that passions, after the fall of man, became, as it were, part of our nature, merged, grew together with our soul, with our heart, and from that became stubborn and powerful.

What can curb passions? A prudent upbringing, a natural sound mind, experience convinced of the harm of passions, contribute much to this; however the most reliable and more general and shorter means to achieve the goal in the matter of taming passions is fasting such as the Holy Church prescribes for us.

Orthodox Christians know from experience that fasting has made many lustful people chaste, angry people meek, violent people modest, proud people humble, disobedient people obedient, envious people benevolent, enemies friends, the beastly-natured people, and people into angels by a holy life.

2) Besides this, fasting is beneficial to our health. Even physical doctors know this and prescribe fasting to many as a remedy. It is a pity only that they often prop up the temple of our body when this temple has shaken, cracked and is close to falling. Fasting, established by the Holy Church, protects our health in advance, assigning to us from a young age as guardians - abstinence, sobriety and peace of mind. True, fasting sometimes weakens the physical strength, but it weakens the strength of those who have not learned to fast, and weakens it so that this weakening itself is beneficial. It is a rest of nature, after which our body comes to new strength.

3) However, fasting was established by the Church not only for bodily benefit. The soul and eternity, the salvation of the soul and the attainment of heavenly glory - this is the goal of all the institutions of the Church. We speak about the bodily benefit that comes from fasting in order to see that the works of Christian piety are useful not only for the soul, but also for the body, and therefore they should be precious, dear not only to those who love the soul, but also to those who love the flesh. For, according to the word of the Apostle, "godliness is useful for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" (Tim. 4:8).

4) What other benefit comes from fasting? Keeping the holy fast makes us capable of prayer. A person who has burdened himself with food and weakened himself with drink is lazy, sleepy, incapable of attention, inclined to absent-mindedness, cold to contemplation of God, indifferent to reverence, and if not an enemy, then not a friend of prayer. Not so with a person fasting in a Christian manner. Assisted by the grace of God, which rests on those who fast, a person fasting willingly goes to the temple of God to pray, willingly prays at home, willingly listens to prayer, willingly kneels before the all-seeing God, feels capable of reverence, of tenderness and of soul-saving sighs and tears. A boat floats more easily when it is not burdened with unnecessary baggage, so prayer is easier and more convenient when the body is not burdened with unnecessary, fattening food and drink, or, in other words, when a person fasts. (See the Instruction of Jacob, Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod).

b) The second lesson we learn from the life of Saint Daniel and his three friends is that we must have constancy in faith and virtue.

Constancy is a necessary condition of faith and virtue. "Be faithful until death" (Rev. 2:10), the mysterious voice of God proclaims to everyone. "But if anyone shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him" (Heb. 10:38). Constancy of convictions generally signifies a decent person. Even the very strength of passion expresses something inspiring if it bears the trait of firmness. But since the Orthodox faith is higher than everything earthly and is not subject to the law of change, then our commitment to it must not change. There are many deep and stormy seas in the world, but a skillfully built ship, guided by a knowledgeable helmsman, majestically rushes along the boundless surface of the waves. Many teachings have been composed by the human mind, waves of wisdom have spread everywhere, but the ship of the Orthodox Church, guided by the omniscient Helmsman, rises above the free outpourings of human thought and carries to the heavenly harbor the souls that have entrusted themselves to it. It remains for us to hold fast to the anchor of our salvation. Having received baptism, we daily confess one baptism, and on the last day of life how joyful it is to pronounce the last words of the Symbol of Faith: "I expect the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come!"

Constancy in virtue will not be hindered by the inevitability of our sinfulness. Can it be said of a traveler that he is not constant if he stumbles and falls, but rises and, taking courage, presses forward? A good direction redeems accidental deviations from duty. Throwing down the sin that entangles us, we must run with patience the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1). The law of perfection does not tolerate in the good the deliberate admixture of evil and the transition from better to worse. He is not perfect who began well, but he will be crowned who ends without shame. What is the use if someone now prays, fasts, makes offerings, and then gives in to impassioned desires, as if he wanted to compensate for the days of privation with a variety of sacrifices to unbridled intemperance? One ascetic was called out of his cell by a voice: “Come, I will show you the deeds of men.” The elder, having come out, saw, among other things, that some man was standing at the well and, drawing water, pouring it into a broken vessel, from which it again flowed into the well. A mysterious voice explained to the observer: “This one, drawing water in this way, depicts one who, although he does good deeds, mixes bad ones with them, and through this ruins his good deeds.” (See the words of Sergius, Metropolitan of Moscow).

III. Through the prayers of the Holy Prophet Daniel and his three holy friends, may the Lord grant us to be and remain constant in faith and good life until the end of our days, so that we may be deemed worthy of blessedness in the Kingdom of Heaven with all the saints.

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.