The Prayer of Azariah and Our Need to Thank God

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, attention was drawn to Azariah’s Prayer and our need to thank God even in the midst of hardship. The responsorial Psalm for the Thanksgiving Day Mass was from the book of Daniel. The section begins with the Prayer of Azariah. It’s important to understand the background of this prayer because, without it, it is easy to simply take his prayer and the prayer of the three men that follow as a nice but unremarkable hymn of praise and thanksgiving.

The Background

Azariah is selected along with Daniel, Hananiah, and Mishael for his youth, beauty, wisdom, and nobility, to enter the service of King Nebuchadnezzar. After three years of training in the ways of the court, including learning the language of their captors, his name is changed to Abnedgo by the chief chamberlain (Daniel 1:6-7). It is said,

And in every matter of wisdom and understanding concerning which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. (Daniel 1:20).

Next, Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about the statue of four metals. As a result of his pleasing and true interpretation, Daniel is able to help appoint his renamed companions to administrative positions in Babylon.

In Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel, the tide abruptly changes. In this chapter, the king has a golden statue made and orders everyone in the kingdom to worship it. When reports reach him that the Jews are refusing to worship his statue, the king has Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego summoned. He demands that they use their positions of power to convince the Jews to worship the statue.

When they refuse, the king has a fiery furnace prepared for them. The furnace is so powerful that it destroys the men who throw the three Israelites into it. Before being thrown bound into the furnace, the three condemned men rebuke the king:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed’nego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnez′zar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18).

Having said this and having been bound and thrown into the furnace, the three men walk amid the flames. Azariah now known as Abednego begins his prayer.

Acknowledgment that We Deserve Our Cross

During Thanksgiving week we didn’t use the Prayer of Azariah. Our responsorial psalm came from the song which all three men sang to God immediately after Azariah’s prayer. Azariah’s prayer is a prayer of acceptance. He accepts God’s punishment and the cross of the moment. He also acknowledges that Israel as a nation deserves punishment and has no real right to anything else. He implores God to deal mercifully with them since he knows that they deserve their punishment:

So all that thou hast brought upon us,
and all that thou hast done to us,
thou hast done in true judgment. [Daniel 3:23 (8)].

Azariah’s sense of guilt is communal; he speaks for the Israelites as a whole. His promise to repent is also communal:

And now with all our heart we follow thee,
we fear thee and seek thy face. [Daniel 3:23 (18)].

As much as we’ve lost this communal sense in our prayer, the Church is still one people and the guilt we suffer for our sins is shared as well as our redemption:

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Also, just as one member of the Church body suffers from sin, so do all :

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:26).

The bottom line is we deserve our crosses no matter how holy we may be individually. The human race deserves to suffer for its sins whether because we share this guilt communally or individually even though our salvation comes individually.

A Reminder that God Has Ultimate Control

The prayer that follows from the three men reminds us of something that we tend to forget: God controls our lives and the universe. It is something as elemental as this: without God, we wouldn’t be here on earth nor would we have any reason to expect to live a single instant more. The three men understand this and they also understand that all creation depends on and in some way glorifies God. They call on the very fire that is surrounding them to praise Him:

Bless the Lord, fire and heat,
sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever. [Daniel 3:23 (44)].

They know that God uses the elements for his glory and for our salvation, even when these elements seem to oppose our human idea of what is right or just. It’s often hard to remember this because it can seem as if the elements of the world are simply acting without any providence behind them. It can seem like we are simply atoms in the void, but, of course, we are always in God’s hands both in good times and bad. Saint Francis sang a similar song to the elements in his Canticle of the Sun. In that song, he, too, commends them even praising “Sister Death”.

We must Thank God at All Times

This episode from Daniel is a reminder to always praise God. Thanking God is what we as humans should properly do. We must thank God because it is our role, along with creation, to fulfill his will. It is we alone who can turn away from him. The rest of creation remains somehow oriented toward his will though fallen from its original state. As Saint Paul writes:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22-23).

We fail to see God’s working beside us in our adversity even as the angel of God was beside the three holy men in the fiery furnace. God works through a groaning, fallen creation and makes beautiful things happen. It is God who gives us important positions in the world, and it is God who allows our success to be taken from us even as he gave worldly prowess to the three men in the fire. Our mistake is often to think that everything depends on keeping the worldly success we have.

Conclusion

I sometimes find myself wondering why I should praise God and actually feel as if I was doing more for God than He was doing for me. At these times, I think I would do well to remember the three men in the fiery furnace. Of course, God works a miracle for these men, but I think what is almost more impressive is the contrite spirit he grants them. Even before entering the furnace, they fearlessly face death for God. They understand that they owe everything they have to him. They understand that even in the middle of a trial, they have much for which to thank God because He is always there. They also are aware that the trials they are sent are gifts from God, opportunities for repentance. Of course, these are all very hard things to remember, but they are the sort of things that saints never forget and that fortify us in the bleakest moments. Our trial may take the form of a dire diagnosis, a grievous loss, or a grave disappointment. If we can be thankful and say that our trial praises God in its very execution, I think we will find more peace than before.