The Epistle at the traditional Latin Mass for the Tuesday of Passion week is the wonderful scene of Daniel thrown into the lion’s den by his enemies and expected to be scarfed down like cat food, but liberated after a quiet week inside the zoo, and a nourishing meal courtesy of his co-prophet Habakkuk (with rapid-flight angelic service long anticipating the current craze for home delivery).
In those days, the Babylonians went to the king and demanded: Hand over to us Daniel, who has destroyed Bel and killed the dragon, or we will kill you and your family. When he saw himself threatened with violence, the king was forced to hand Daniel over to them.Daniel in the lion’s den—the chapter 14 version of it (a different telling is found in chapter 6) [*Note]—has been read in Passiontide since the earliest times, for Daniel is a type of Christ, thrown to His enemies and expected to be destroyed; in His agony He was visited by an angel, and after three days in the cave, He was raised up to glorious life.
They threw Daniel into a lions’ den, where he remained six days. In the den were seven lions, and two carcasses and two sheep had been given to them daily. But now they were given nothing, so that they would devour Daniel.
In Judea there was a prophet, Habacuc; he mixed some bread in a bowl with the stew he had boiled, and was going to bring it to the reapers in the field, when an Angel of the Lord told him, Take the lunch you have to Daniel in the lions’ den at Babylon. But Habacuc answered, Babylon, sir, I have never seen, and I do not know the den! The Angel of the Lord seized him by the crown of his head and carried him by the hair; with the speed of the wind, he set him down in Babylon above the den. Daniel, servant of God, cried Habacuc, take the lunch God has sent you. You have remembered me, O God, said Daniel; You have not forsaken those who love You. While Daniel began to eat, the Angel of the Lord at once brought Habacuc back to his own place.
On the seventh day the king came to mourn for Daniel. As he came to the den and looked in, there was Daniel, sitting in the midst of the lions! The king cried aloud, You are great, O Lord, thou God of Daniel! Daniel he took out of the lions’ den, but those who had tried to destroy him he threw into the den, and they were devoured in a moment before his eyes. Then the king said: Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel; for He is the Saviour, working signs and wonders in the earth, Who has delivered Daniel out of the lions’ den.
So ancient is this association of Daniel in the lion’s den with Christ in the Passion that we find it in some of the earliest Christian art we still possess, like this fresco of the 3rd century in the Catacomb of Ss Peter and Marcellinus:
Why am I somehow not surprised that this passage from Daniel 14 was REMOVED from Passiontide in the fat new lectionary? And why might they have stricken this age-old Passiontide reading? Let's think of some possible reasons.
1. They did not believe that the book of Daniel is “relevant” to modern people, especially at this most solemn season. Its content (violence, aggression, Rated-R stuff) might be puzzling, uncomfortable, or prejudicial to ecumenical, interreligious, interractial, and international relations.
2. They had a great discomfort with miracles and tried to minimize their presence whenever possible. And when it comes to angels—the strategy is containment and minimization, like when they reduced the three archangelic feasts to one.
3. The old commentaries and the old liturgy see the enemies of Daniel as types of the pagans who opposed the early Christians (scenes from the book of Daniel are frequently found in Paleochristian liturgy and art). After the Council, however, it is not polite to talk about enemies of Christ or of the Cross, in spite of the prominence of that theme in the New Testament.
So, the next time you hear anyone try to defend the liturgical reform as “returning to the way the early Christians prayed,” tell them... — well, you must be polite. Rattle off ten truly ancient aspects of Christian worship that the liturgical reform abolished or curtailed:
1. the ancient cycle of readings
2. the use of all 150 psalms in their integrity
3. the use of the Roman Canon for all Western rites
4. days of fasting and abstinence throughout the year
5. Ember Days and Rogation Days
6. the octave and season of Pentecost
7. proper vigil Masses before all great feasts.
8. the use of an elevated linguistic register
9. the focus on sacrifice, altar, and the East
10. all-male liturgical ministry divided into many orders, major and minor
It would be pretty easy to go on with the list, but the point is this: the classical Roman rite is thoroughly and consistently ancient (and more besides), while the Novus Ordo is a modern potpourri of inconsistently selected bits and pieces of tradition mixed with novelties, like a badly decorated house.
May the story of Daniel, the servant of the living God, and his miraculous rescue from his enemies plunge us deeper into the mysteries of the Triduum — and may the Lord someday deliver the captive Roman liturgy from its modern oppressors.
*NOTE: There are two tellings of the Daniel and the Lion’s Den in the book of Daniel: one in chapter 6, the other in chapter 14. The chapter 14 one is read in the TLM on Tuesday of Passion Week; the chapter 6 one is read in the Novus Ordo on Thursday of Week 34 of Ordinary Time. It’s interesting to compare the two versions; the miracle of the angel-driven delivery of food is not found in the former.
