Word to the Wise
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 - Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Lent
[Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95 and John 8: 31-42]Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who sent his angel to deliver the servants who trusted in him; they disobeyed the royal command and yielded their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.
Heroic stories that feature courageous young people always get an audience! Here the dramatic and vivid language of the Book of Daniel pits those three young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (whose names are the scourge of Lectors) against King Nebuchadnezzar (his name, too!). The King wants them to worship the Babylonian deity and they refuse. The King threatens them with the furnace, they still refuse. The King has the furnace heated seven times hotter and they, as it were, keep their cool because God is with them. They even manage to sing two long canticles that are used in the Liturgy of the Hours! Idealism of the kind displayed by our heroes here is not just for the young. The effort to keep idols from creeping into our lives is ongoing and lifetime in length. Our consumer society constantly threatens us with dire consequences (sometimes direct and sometimes implied) if we don't buy this or that. The government and other ruling authorities tell us that we cannot have religion in public spaces and that Catholic hospitals must violate Catholic faith by offering certain immoral medical procedures! (The government, like King Nebuchadnezzar, knows how to raise the heat!) One would hope that our Catholic faith is strong enough to survive the steady pressure of secular religion. Lord knows, it has survived other persecutions that seem historically to have been worse: Communism, the anti-clerical revolutions of France and Mexico, etc. Reading the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego can provide a needed boost in the effort to be steadfast in faith! Take the time to do it! AMEN
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