Aemiliana Lohr 

LOOK Now, DANIEL IS SITTING AMID THE LIONS

(Tuesday in Passion Week)

Again, we see the image of the suffering and threatened Christ: Daniel in the lion-pit. Once again, we hear the cry of dread, the 

prayer of begging from the man who is guiltless and persecuted:

'Rescue me, O God of Israel, from all my anguish. ' The Mass, late like all the Tuesday Masses in Lent, is a happy composition from the whole liturgy of Passiontide. It shows once more the spirit of continuity in the liturgy. The line of yesterday's Mass could not be drawn out in a more subtle way: yesterday Jonas rescued from the belly of a sea monster as God's living judgment and the messenger of its salvation to Nineveh; and today, Daniel, kept safe amongst the lions as a witness to the true God in Babylon. Both are prophets of Israel who bring faith and salvation to the pagans.

 

The contrast is a shaking one: Jesus amongst his unbelieving brethren, 'for even his brethren were without faith in him' and Daniel amongst the God-fearing beasts. The hunger of these beasts has made them more savage, yet they do not dare to touch the holy man, God's favored one;

 

These beasts that have no reason obey blindly the mysterious power and attractiveness which comes from the prophet and the God-bearer. But the man with his reason shuts himself off from the love of God shining out in the words and actions of his incarnate son. One has only to contemplate the figure of Daniel in the Cathedral of Worms to feel the shaming and thrilling gesture of these dumb animals; they are lying under the prophet's feet and licking his hand and foot. It is impossible to say what is more compelling, the expression of complete security, a loving knowledge of being in God’s protection in the face and figure of the prophet who sits so peacefully and praises God or the indiscernible devotion on the faces of the dumb creatures under the influence of the saint.