Daniel 3 - to become rebels - 16th week thursday

Today our responsorial psalm is taken from the book of the prophet Daniel.  It is not a psalm but it is a hymn, the title in fact is the Canticle of the Three Young Men.  It was composed during the Babylonian Exile when the Jews were forced to fall down and worship the golden statue of the Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar at the sound of any musical instrument.  They refused for they would not worship anyone or anything but God.  And so they were sentenced to death, and the three young men were led to the furnace to be burned.  The furnace was so hot even the guards who threw the young men inside the furnace were themselves devoured by the flames. And yet the three young men were saved from the flames that not a hair or a piece of their clothing was singed by fire.

"Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

The hymn is a beautiful hymn not so much because of its lyrics but because of the circumstances in which it was composed and sung.  It was composed and sung at a time when these three young men were struggling as they were ostracized for their beliefs, when they were belittled because of their actions, when they were criticized because of their practices. However, looked down upon, they never gave up.  Considered not up with the times they continued to worship only the Lord.  Threatened, they stood for what they believed and continued to heed God's call.

For seminarians to become priests they too must become rebels, natural rebels, like the three young men – going against the tide of pleasure-seeking values, swimming against the current of the modern world, believing and even enjoying what they chose in God and for God.