Christmas Retrospective: The Sunday Before Christmas—A Meditation on How We Handle Temptation

The Sunday Before Christmas is called the Sunday of the Holy Fathers. On this day, we commemorate the ancestors of Christ and the other holy people of Israel, who lived after the time that the Law was given to the nation on Mount Sinai. Primarily, the Church holds up two different examples for our admiration and emulation: the Prophet Daniel and the three holy youths, Ananias, Azarias and Mishael.
The Holy Prophet Daniel was one of the early exiles from the land of Israel, when the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar took certain members of the Jewish royal house as captives to Babylon. This first deportation was in 606 B.C. It was followed by the complete deportation of the people to Babylon in 587 B.C. Daniel was made an official in the palace of the King of Babylon, and he exercised that role under the Babylonian Empire, and then under the Persian Empire, until his death in 538 B.C. As an official in the government, Daniel gained a great reputation for wisdom. The source of his wisdom was his close relationship with his God, the God of Israel.
Several times during his tenure in the palace of the kings of Babylon and Persia, the king tried to establish religious unity in his empire by requiring all the citizens to worship his image. Each time, the Jews in the palace were opposed to the plan. Daniel, as a leader of the Jewish exiles, was often punished for his opposition, but, each time, God vindicated him by miraculous means. Twice, once during the reign of the Persian Emperor Darius I, and then again, during the reign of the Emperor Cyrus, the prophet was thrown to the lions. On both occasions, Daniel was not harmed, but when the lions' den was opened sometime later, he was found to be alive and in good health. Once, during Daniel's confinement in the lions' den, God sent the Prophet Habakkuk, all the way from the land of Israel, to give food to Daniel.
The three youths Ananias, Azarias and Mishael were likewise slaves in the palace of the king of Babylon. Like the prophet Daniel, they defied the king's religious policy and refused to worship the king's idols. For this, they were sentenced to be burned to death in a furnace. Nevertheless, when they were thrown into the furnace, God drove the fire out of the furnace, so that the interior of it was cool, while the fire blazed out beyond the limits of the furnace and burned the Babylonians, who were standing nearby. Then, Christ our God joined the three youths in the furnace, and comforted and strengthened them. In the midst of the flames, they sang a song that is still sung in the morning service of our Church.
The message in the life of the Prophet Daniel for us is that we should banish fear from our hearts, as we put our trust in God. As the Lord Jesus' ancestor, King David says in the Psalms: In God I trust, I shall not fear. What can mortal man do to me? Let us resolve to see the hand of God guiding the circumstances of our lives as we strive to do His Will.
The hymns of the Church tell us that the Holy Prophet Daniel "attended lions as if they were sheep." In the same way, let us attend to the puzzling, confusing and even frightening circumstances of our life with complete trust in Him, Who fashioned the world.
The three youths in the furnace teach a different kind of steadfastness. Often, the force of temptation swells within us, and it burns like a fire. The fire of the passions is only quenched by the love of God. Our heart in communion with God is safe from temptation. Even in the midst of the flames of the passions, we can praise God for the beautiful order that He has wrought in Creation, just as the three youths in the furnace did. Temptation arises from created things, so let the love of God quench the temptation. Let us praise God for the things that He has created, even as we reject the temptation. When temptation to anger burns within us like a fire, let us praise God for the natural energy He has given us, in order to overcome obstacles in our lives.
    Let us quench the fires within us with praise, thanking God for what He has wrought. Let us banish fear from our lives, and attend to our various circumstances with trust in God.