Tag Archives: Pascha

Three Young Men in the Burning Fiery Furnace

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He who saved the three young men in the furnace became incarnate and suffered as a mortal man. Through his sufferings he clothed what is mortal in the robe of immortality. He alone is blessed and most glorious: the God of our fathers. (Paschal Matins)

The story of the three young men in the burning, fiery furnace found in Daniel 3 was traditionally the last Old Testament reading of the Easter Vigil, the “hinge reading” connecting the Old Testament prophecies to the blessing of the font and the celebration of Holy Baptism. (It is still the last of the Old Testament readings in the Orthodox Church.) The great canticle of the men in the furnace–with its tremendous refrain, “Praise the Lord! Sing and exult him forever!”–would follow, with a prayer and the procession to the font. In ancient practice, when baptisms were celebrated in a separate baptistry chapel because the adults to be baptized were all nude, the baptisms were conducted while the last of the Old Testament lessons were being read and the newly-baptized would come back to the church during the singing of this canticle.

How does this story of the three young men in the burning fiery furnace connect to Holy Baptism and the celebration of the Resurrection? In the book of Daniel, we read that the three young men were thrown into the great furnace because they refused to worship a giant idol the king of Babylon had set up. (The fire in the furnace was so terrible that the soldiers that threw the young men into the falmes were killed as well.) But the witnesses of the execution saw that the three young men were not burned in the fire but instead could be seen walking and singing in the midst of the flames and that a fourth man–who looked like “the Son of God,” the text reports– could be seen in the furnance as well. That “Son of God,” a fearful, beautiful Angel of the Lord was understood to be a divine reflection of God himself and he protected the three men from the flames. When the three men were finally extracted from the fire, they were found to be unharmed–not even their clothers or hair was singed and there was no smell of smoke on them! Christians have always understood that Angel of the Lord, the fourth angelic Son of God in the furnace to be a revelation of the Word of God who would later be incarnate of the Virgin Mary and who would descend through the Cross into Hell itself to smash the gates of death.

These young men in the furnace are understood to prefigure both the Incarnation and the Resurrrection. They prefigure the Virgin’s birthgiving because she, on receiving the Fire of the Godhead within her womb, was not burned, but remained virgin, even as she was before giving birth. But more specifically in terms of the Resurrection, the early Christian preachers and hymnographers tell us:

 “According to the story of the Three Children in Babylon [Dan. 3], the flame of fire was divided; for when the furnace poured forth fire forty-nine cubits high it burned up all those around [Dan. 3:22], but by the command of God, it admitted the wind within itself, providing for the boys a most pleasant breeze and coolness as in the shade of plants in a tranquil spot; for it was as the blowing of a wind bringing dew. It is far more wonderful for the element of fire to be divided than for the Red Sea to be separated into parts, Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord divides the continuity and unity in the nature of fire. Although fire seems to human intelligence to be incapable of being cut or divided, yet by the command of the Lord it is cut through and divided. I believe that the fire prepared in punishment for the devil and his angels [Mt. 25:41] is divided by the voice of the Lord, in order that, since there are two capacities in fire, the burning and illuminating, the fierce and punitive part of the fire may wait for those who deserve to burn, while its illuminating and radiant part may be allotted for the enjoyment of those who are rejoicing. Therefore, the voice of the Lord divides the fire and allots it; so that the fire of punishment is darksome, but the light of the state of rest remains incapable of burning.” (extract from St. Basil the Great, in his Homily on Psalm 28, which says “The voice of the Lord Who divides the flame” [Ps. 28:7])

St. Jerome, in his commentary on the Book of Daniel, tells us that this experience can be shared by all the baptized: “When the soul is oppressed with tribulation and taken up with various vexations, having lost hope of human aid and turned with its whole heart to God, an Angel of the Lord descends to it. That is to say, the supernatural being descends to the aid of the servant and dashes aside the fierce heat of the violent flames, that the fiery shafts of the enemy utterly fail to pierce the inner citadel of our heart and we escape being shut up in his fiery furnace.”

How many, during these weeks of quarentine and lockdown, have experienced tribulation and various vexations How many have perhaps lost hope of human aid? It is at times such as these that we look for the Angel to protect the inner citadel of our hearts from the fiery attacks of our Enemy.

“Almighty and everlasting God, the only hope of the world, who by the preaching of thy holy prophets hast prefigured the mysteries of this present time: mercifully increase the devotion of thy people, since none can grow in any virtue without thy inspiration ….” (traditional collect after the reading from Daniel 3 at the Easter Vigil)

“Go, Tell My Brethren”

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“The myrrhbearing women, at the break of dawn, drew near to the tomb of the Life-giver. There they found an angel sitting upon the stone. He greeted them with these words: ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why do you mourn the incorrupt amid corruption? Go, proclaim the GOSPEL to his disciples.” (Paschal Matins) (Detail from a larger 18th cent. Resurrection icon; photo by S. Morris)

“How filled with bliss were these women who, taught by the angel’s account, were found worthy to announce the triumph of the resurrection to the world and to proclaim that the sovereignty of death, to which Eve became subject when she was seduced by the serpent’s speech, had been utterly destroyed! How much more blissful will be the souls of both men and women equally, when, aided by heavenly grace, they have merited to triumph over death and enter into the joy of a blessed resurrection, while the condemned have been struck with trepidation and well-deserved punishment on the day of judgment!” (excerpt from Homily II.7, St. Bede, Homilies on the Gospels, vol. 2, translated by Martin and Hurst)

The knowledge of the gospel, the “good news,” depends on the preaching of the women who came to the tomb and discovered that Christ had risen. The angel at the tomb sent them back to preach the good news to the male apostles who were still hiding after the Crucifixion, frightened and alone. If the women had said nothing, no one would have ever heard that Christ had destroyed Death. Their participation in the divine plan of salvation was critical. All subsequent Christian experience depends on them having gone to the tomb and then telling everyone what had happened there.

We see a contrast between Eve and the Virgin Mary, the second Eve–just as Christ is the Second Adam–insofar that Eve was confronted by a (fallen) angel and chose to defy God, bringing Death into the world while the Virgin Mary was confronted by an angel (Gabriel) and chose to cooperate with God to bring true Life into the world. (Read more about this in St. Irenaeus of Lyons.) We can also see a contrast between the Myrrhbearing Women and Eve insofar that Eve hid from God in a garden and was given an apron of fig leaves to hide her nakedness while the Myrrhbearing Women stepped forward to meet the Risen Christ in a garden and were able to “put on Christ” (Galations 3:27) to remove their sinfulness.

St. Bede says something similar in another homily, where he contrasts the several Myrrhbearing Women to the one woman (Eve): “You see that several [women], instructed by the angels, proclaim that the death which one woman, seduced by the devil, had brought upon the world was now destroyed. One woman, coming [out of the garden] opened a path [that led away] from heavenly joys; many, coming back from their present exile, gave the information that the gate had now been unbarred for regaining the heavenly fatherland.” (Homily II/10, p. 94)

The stars of Orion’s belt in the night sky are sometimes called “the Three Marys” or “the Myrrhbearing Women;” these same stars are sometimes called “the Magi,” and identified with the Wise Men who came to visit the Christ Child. This association demonstrates the similar roles of the Myrrhbearing Women and the Magi in the Easter/Christmas stories as they were Outsiders (women and pagan philosophers) who were responsible for proclaiming the good news, the gospel, of Christ to the world.

“The Day of Resurrection…!”

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“Let us purify our senses and we shall see Christ shining in the unapproachable light of his Resurrection. We shall clearly hear him say, ‘Rejoice!’ as we sing the song of victory.” (Paschal Matins) A contemporary stained glass window depicts St. Thomas, who probes the wounds of the risen Christ. (St. Luke’s Church, Forest Hills; photo by S. Morris)

The gospel accounts in which Christ greets the Myrrhbearing Women at the tomb or the apostles in the Upper Room after his Resurrection tell us that his first word was, “Rejoice!” (Alas, too often modern English translations render this as “Greetings!”) This is also the first word Gabriel utters when he greets the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation: “Rejoice!” (We are more familiar with the Latin translation, “Ave!” which in English becomes, “Hail!”) The gospel, the “good news,” begins and ends with the same word and is summed up in this one word: Rejoice!

In the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, when the priest or deacon finish giving Holy Communion to the congregation, one of the prayers they say as they return to the altar is:

“O Christ our God, who art thyself the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets, who didst fulfill all the dispensation of the Father: fill our hearts with joy and gladness always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

In this short prayer, we greet Christ as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, i.e. the entire Old Testament. He is what everyone in the Old Testament was expecting, waiting for, hoping for. As the fulfillment of all that had come before, he fulfilled the dispensation, i.e. the divine plan for salvation (Eph. 1:9-10; 3:9-11; 1 Tim. 1:3-4) which the Father had in mind since eternity. Receiving the gift of Holy Communion, we participate in this fulfillment. Our participation in Christ is the consummation of everything he did. In a real way, everything God did in the Old Testament and in the life-death-resurrection of Christ was in order to share Holy Communion with us. Having received Holy Communion, we are caught up in the divine joy and gladness–the divine love–for us, our neighbors, the entire world.

God is made flesh. Death is destroyed. What else can we do but rejoice?