God began a long and intimate relationship with humanity through Abraham, with the goal of eventually sending His own Son to be offered as a sacrifice for our sins. It was through Abraham that God set His plan in motion, which caused God to promise Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. In order for this promise to remain, Abraham offered his own part of the covenant to be faithful to God and God alone. This covenant with His chosen people was renewed with Moses and David, and eventually found its fulfillment in Christ. To this day, the promise to Abraham - that His people will be blessed and prosperous among the nations - remains, although acceptance has been opened to anyone who is willing to become a part of God’s people. 

That being said, it can be frightening and even lead to a certain amount of doubt whenever we witness the people of God being persecuted at the hands of others. It happens throughout Scripture; The Israelites were continuously enslaved and subjected to the torturous treatment of others, Christ himself was violently put to death, and the people of God through the new covenant were martyred and persecuted, which is still going on in some areas of the world to this day. How could it be that a people set apart by God and given graces that others are not be treated so horrifically? It indicates that the two most likely explanations are that God does not care for His people or God has not really set them apart. This issue is addressed directly in this passage from Daniel; at one of its lowest and weakest points, the nation of Israel is under the brutal control of Babylon with no prince, prophet, or leader to strengthen them through it. King Nebuchadnezzar goes so far as to cast the most faithful Jews into fiery furnaces, but they survive unscathed, despite being willing to go to their deaths as burnt offerings to God so that He would remember His promise to Israel.

When we read this story in its entirety, it is almost exactly the same story as the earliest martyrs of the Church. Because of their faithfulness, they were put to death by any means necessary, and sometimes it took multiple attempts. Consider the stories of saints who survived initial attempts of execution only to immediately be martyred in another way. We should remember that God’s solemn promise of protecting His people and His church does not necessarily mean He is going to keep the individuals who make up His people or His church from suffering. The story of Daniel, the story of Christ’s resurrection, and the story of the martyrs all prove that the old saying, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” is true. Our willingness to offer ourselves as a sacrifice in the same way Christ did for us is the most effective way to invite others who witness our action to desire to become a member of God’s chosen people. If our lives are meant to be lived to spread the Gospel of Christ, we can do so much more convincingly by taking up our own crosses and being models of Christ-like behavior to others. This is how we build the kingdom of God to become as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands of the seashore.

God is often misunderstood as having minimal involvement in the affairs of this world. Some who may believe that He created the world view Him as a watchmaker, who makes the watch, sets it into motion, and ceases to have a hand in its movement from that point on. This view of God’s presence in the world may be due to our apparent inability to encounter God immediately through the senses. Although we experience the natural world through our senses, they can still limit us. Because we immediately sense everything else in the natural world, we assume that we should be able to immediately sense God if He were truly present among us. However, there are many things that we acknowledge despite sensing them through other things: love, emotions, virtues, etc. God does present Himself to us through other things so that we may sense Him, who is not part of the natural world. 

Daniel is asked by the Babylonian king Belshazzar to explain a frightening experience in his court. While drunk from wine imbibed from the holy vessels stolen from the Jewish Temple, the King’s court sees a detached hand writing something on the wall. Daniel explains to the king that the words written on the wall indicate that his kingdom is at an end and will be divided among the Medes and the Persians, for desecrating the holy vessels. Belshazzar experienced God in a real way, but the only way he came to understand God’s message to him was through something or someone else: Daniel. In this same way, it is necessary for us to experience and sense God through the things of this natural world that He uses as instruments for our understanding. Daniel also emphasizes a crucial message that even we need to hear: our life breath and the course of our entire life is in the hand of God. In the case of Belshazzar, this hand of God was quite literal.

God’s hand is that part of Him that remains present in our lives and guides the instruments with which He uses to communicate with us. In Judaism, as they read from the Torah scroll, they use a small instrument called a yad, which is a pointer in the shape of a small hand pointing with its finger. Through this instrument, it is as if God’s hand is indicating to us where we can find Him present among us - in His Word. In the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, which is sung at all the Pentecost Vespers, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the “finger of God’s right hand.” God’s hand in our own lives is present through the Holy Spirit, but expressed through those things which we can sense. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, we should be an instrument through which others can sense God in a tangible way.

What exactly is an angel? What is the difference between the world of man and the kingdom of angels? Angels are not former human beings; they are creatures like us, but were not given the gift of a physical body. Their intellect is perfect and their conformity to God enables them to be far closer to Him in Heaven than we will ever be. When comparing ourselves to angels, we are far inferior, but only according to our own metrics. When we compare ourselves with each other, we will assign value and worth based on the level of intellect, the level of wisdom, the level of spirituality, the level of ability, etc. By all conceivable metrics, angels are greater than us except for one: God chose to take upon Himself a human nature, elevating our species to be the glue that holds Heaven and Earth together.

Why would God care so much about some of the lowliest creatures He brought into existence? Why would He not instead focus on the hosts of angels to exercise the fullness of His love and power? There are no answers to these questions that will satisfy human metrics; instead, the only answer is that God deeply, deeply loves us in such a way that transcends the reasons of this world. However, we can gain a glimpse into the ontological order and our placement within it specifically through the angels, especially with the few whom we actually know. We actually only know the names of three heavenly angels from Scripture: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. The reason why we know these three is because of the role they played in humanity’s love story with God. Using this analogy of a love story, consider yourself as the undeserving love interest and God as the one who is in pursuit of you. By all appearances, the angels are the only ones who are really worthy of God’s love and affection; they know Him better than we do, they are closer to Him, they have spent eons longer than us in His presence, and they are ready and willing to do what He asks of them in a way that we so often fail at. However, it is precisely because of this intimacy that the angels share with God that they know and understand that His love must be recognized by all His creation. God is not limited in whom He loves, but rather wants us to love Him in the same way His angels do. As a result, He sends His most trusted angels to teach us how He loves us, why He loves us, and why we should reciprocate that love.

In Gabriel, he sends a messenger to share special things that come directly from Heaven. In Raphael, he sends a teacher, who comes to prepare us and to challenge us to live up to our created potential. In Michael, he sends a warrior, who bestows upon us the spiritual armor that is required of us in the great battle between Heaven and Hell. These heavenly creatures simply want us, the love interest, to be open and receptive to the love that God is ready to pour out from Himself into our hearts. They are already perfect recipients of divine love; how could God reveal His love any more perfectly to them than exactly how He does it now? But for us, we are corporeal beings, which angels are not. We recognize love and receive love through our bodies, which is exactly why God shared His love with us in this way by becoming a corporeal being Himself. Along the way, the angels ministered to Him, so that we might learn from them how to recognize exactly when Heaven and Earth meet.

On the last day of a liturgical year, the day before Advent, we ought to consider just how different a liturgical new year is from how we would celebrate or mark a new calendar year. A new year is usually an opportunity for many to come up with resolutions, to leave behind all the issues of the previous year, and to find a way to make the next year better. A liturgical year should be treated a little differently; we are not just marking the passage of another year as we do on the calendar, but we are focusing on the very thing that leads us into the new year - Advent. Just as it is laid out in Scripture, we are meant to see the signs of Christ’s coming around us. Now that the signs are there, we begin preparing for his arrival. If you want to treat Advent as you would a calendar new year, this can be an opportunity for you to make changes in your life and to prepare your soul for the arrival of Christ; however, these are not merely resolutions. These are the preparations that Christ demands of us before he comes again.

This transition into the new liturgical year is also an opportunity for us to reorient our focus towards the frivolity of life and the mortality of all that is within it. On a daily basis, there is a good chance that you do not spend much time thinking of Christ’s second coming. When you go about your normal day, going to work, running errands, spending time with your family, or enjoying yourself with hobbies, your mind is not occupied with the idea that, at any moment, Christ’s return will be initiated. However, this is precisely what we are warned about multiple times throughout Scripture: we will not know the day or the hour. Therefore, it is best for us to remain prepared and ready for that moment should it ever happen in our lifetime, either within the next few minutes or the next few years. But it is not just the little mindless tasks we occupy ourselves with regularly that can catch us off guard should Christ return; we can just as easily be distracted by those little things in life that cause us worry or stress. Christ calls them the anxieties of daily life: financial issues, relationship problems, family drama, work difficulties, or anything else that cause us to be bitter, to lose hope, or to be distracted by those things that pass away. And they do pass away. Look back on your life and all those things that can be classified as the anxieties of daily life; in the moment, they were all that occupied you, but they do not last. As Christ told us in the Gospel, His words will not pass away, but everything else will. His words ought to be the focus of our energy in this life.

We finish the liturgical year by reflecting on the words of the Apocalyptic book of the Prophet Daniel, whose visions and writings are frighteningly similar to the events of the book of Revelation. We are told of what is to come, a horrific prophecy of four beasts representing four kingdoms that will arise over the earth. But Daniel is clear to echo the words he was told: the holy ones of the Most High will, in the end, receive kingship. Daniel is particularly overcome with fear of this fourth beast, the fourth kingdom to rule over the earth. Nevertheless, he is reminded that God, in the person of the Son, will emerge victorious forever and ever. This is all to come, when we will be persecuted, overruled, and ultimately protected if we are to count ourselves among these “holy ones” Daniel refers to. However, Christ must come back first. And behold, he is coming soon. Blessed are those who keep the prophetic message of his Word.

There is a beautiful harmony between certain details within the Old Testament and the New Testament. This harmony also gives support to the truth of the writings and events that take place within each book. For example, the Suffering Servant passages from the book of Isaiah were literally fulfilled even in the smallest details by the Passion of Jesus Christ. When these details in both sections of the Bible support each other, we can safely trust that they are true and real. In other passages, though, we experience this scriptural harmony in a frightening, albeit hopeful warning: the book of Daniel from the Old Testament and certain prophecies from Jesus share shockingly similar details of the end times with the book of Revelation from the New Testament. What makes these passages frightening is that, unlike the Old Testament passages that prefigured Christ, we have not yet gone through the end times.

These passages and books are referred to as apocalyptic literature, which is one of the predominant literary genres that is present in multiple points throughout the Bible. We should consider this fact with tremendous awareness: it must be vital to us as human beings to know and prepare ourselves for what will happen at the end times. Through these different apocalyptic messages, God is trying to warn us again and again to be watchful and prepare ourselves, because we know neither the day nor the hour when it will come. Daniel reveals that this is going to be a time of great distress, and that those who will be delivered from the distress can be found in a “book”. This lines up with the same description from John in the book of Revelation. We have no idea what this distress will look like, and we cannot be certain that our names are in this "book", but we can understand that this period will be brought about as Satan’s final push for domination of God’s creation. Unfortunately, some will succumb to this distress by their own free will, unless through their actions, they preserve themselves as those written in the book.

However, apocalyptic literature is always hopeful; although there will be suffering and fear, God will remain victorious. In all three shared visions of the end times, the primary focus is not on the destruction, doom, or danger of the Apocalypse. Instead, it is always on the deliverance of the just souls and the fulfillment of humanity’s promise to God. This hope culminates in Jesus Christ, both in his death and resurrection, and his continued presence within his Church. Everything we see and everything that we think matters within our earthly lives will pass, but his Word is all that will remain. If we want to be prepared for the end times, we must hold on to his everlasting Word.

The history of Israel is marked by constant reversions toward God and relapses away from Him. We should take this to be a profound message for our own lives: in all of the world, there was no individual and no nation more cherished in the eyes of God than Israel. This privileged role of being God’s chosen people was brought about by the immense virtue of only a handful of individuals, from Abraham to Moses to David and others. As a result of the faithfulness of these individuals and their authority among their people, Israel as a whole remained protected and specially treated by God. However, within Israel were also individuals who did not live up to the virtue of their fathers; in fact, some of these individuals were simply evil. Their actions also hindered the nation, as Israel suffered collectively multiple times in their history. Perhaps the most intense period of suffering occurred during their time of exile in Babylon.

Babylon is the most accurate representation of gentilic and pagan civilization, in direct contrast to the simplicity and faithfulness of the nation of Israel. The city of Babylon represented human evil itself, and was the source of one of the darkest times in Israel’s history. When we go through the darkest moments of our lives, this is when we undergo the most important test. Will our suffering break us or will we overcome it and subsequently grow in virtue and strength? In this very long and very detailed passage from the book of Daniel, we hear about two paths taken by those from Israel. On the one hand, we have the two elders who were chosen as judges for the Israelites. Even as authorities among their people and arbiters of God’s Law, they had been influenced by their time in Babylon and had given in to the basest human desires. On the other hand, you have Susanna, a woman who places complete trust in the Lord even when her life appears to be at an end due to injustice, and Daniel, a holy man who fights for the virtuous Susanna by appealing to basic human reason. 

Israel’s time in Babylon teaches us a valuable lesson about human nature. There are certain desires and urges that bind us to an earthly existence, and when we cannot overcome them, we limit ourselves to the physical world that will inevitably fall away. However, there are gifts that are accessible only because of our human nature (such as goodness, virtue, and reason) that allow us to fully express our humanity while contacting our divine Creator. These are the things that reveal how we were made in the image and likeness of God. But God chose to come to us in even the most basic human form so that we can learn how to navigate our faithfulness while using and appreciating our physical existence. The influence of Babylon may tie us to the corruptible world, but the influence of God unites our bodies with the goodness of our souls. Initially in the virtuous individuals of Israel’s history, from the patriarchs to the prophets to even those like Susanna, we have a model for a virtuous earthly life. Eventually in Christ, that model is perfected.