Part three, Chapter V: Mary's Heart, the Fiery Furnace of Babylon

Mary's Heart, the Fiery Furnace of Babylon

ANOTHER symbolic picture of the admirable Heart of the most Holy Mother of God is the miraculous furnace described in the third chapter of the Prophet Daniel. St. John Damascene and many other holy Doctors affirm that the fiery furnace was a figure of the sinless Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its burning fire a reflection of the heavenly fire in the holy breast of the Mother of Fair Love. Here are St. John Damascene's words: "Is it not true," he says addressing Our Lady, "that this furnace, filled with a fire at once burning and refreshing, was a faithful image of thee and an excellent picture of the divine and eternal fire dwelling within thee?" (1)

But you may well ask how anything so noble and holy as the Heart of the Queen of Heaven could be represented by the furnace of Babylon, an instrument of torture designed by the wickedness and cruelty of King Nabuchodonosor? Remember that the three young men, Sidrach, Misach and Abdenago, thrown into the furnace to be burnt to ashes, belonged to the people of Israel, and everything that happened to the Israelites was a figure and a foreshadowing of the great miracles that were to be fulfilled in Christianity, and in the Father and Mother of Christians, "All these things happened to them in figure." (2) Remember also that St. Augustine (3) and St. Gregory the Great (4) tell us that Sacred Scripture mentions many objects which though profane and wicked in themselves, are nevertheless a representation of good and holy thoughts.

What can be more profane than a malodorous he-goat or a venomous snake? Yet the Holy Ghost employs them both to represent the Lamb of (1). Annon te fornax illa praemonstravit cujus ignis roridus simul et flammens erat, quae divini ignis in te habitantis figuram praeferebat? Orat. i de Dormit. B. Virg. (2). 1 Cor. 10, 11. (3). Contra Faustum, lib. 22, Cap. 83 (4). Moral. lib. 3, cap. 21.

God laden with the sins of the world.(5) What could be worse and more reprehensible than the sensual and inordinate love of King Solomon for strange women or the immoral marriages he contracted, which were absolutely forbidden by God's law? The Holy Spirit makes of them, nevertheless, a figure of the adorable love of the King of Angels for sinful souls, and of the divine union His infinite goodness seeks to contract with the hearts of men.(6) What resemblance can we find between an Egyptian woman, dark like all those of her race, in contrast to the Jews, as she herself admits: "I am black," (7) and the peerless Queen of all women? The Egyptian woman springing from a barbarous and heathen people, was the daughter of an infidel and idolatrous king, and the spouse of one who recognized the disorders of his dissolute life, confessing himself to be the most foolish of men; (8) Mary was fair as the moon, bright as the sun, born of God's chosen people, the daughter of King David, the Spouse of the King of Kings, the Mother of God Himself. Nevertheless, the Sacred Canticle, written under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, presents the Egyptian queen to us as an image and likeness of the Virgin Mother? (9)

A passionate lover delights to write the name of his beloved and sketch her image wherever he happens to be, not only on paper or canvas, but also on trees, stones and whatever else comes under his hand. Similarly, the incomprehensible love of God, Father and Spouse of the most perfect and lovable Virgin Mary, causes Him to take pleasure in picturing her Heart even in the burning furnace of Babylon.

Certainly that furnace was the product of Nabuchodonosor's impious rage, but divine Providence, without whose order and permission nothing can happen, designated it to show the extent of the power of God and the marvels of His goodness, through the miraculous protection given to His faithful friends. God also willed that the fiery furnace should give us a glorious picture of the ardent Heart of the Queen of Heaven, which is indeed a furnace of love and charity.

In the furnace of Babylon we behold many marvels wrought by God's omnipotence. Consider that in the midst of the furnace filled with fire and flame, there should be a refreshing wind, likened to fragrant dew. "The angel made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind (5). Lev. 16, 7-9. (6). Cant. 6, 7-8. (7). Cant. 1, 4. (8). Prov. 30, 2. (9). Cant. 6, 9.

bringing dew."(10) What a marvel it is to behold a burning furnace whose flames protect those inside its crucible, while they destroy those who remain outside! What a miracle to see fire comforting and refreshing those cast into the sevenfold beat of its flames, while burning to death those standing at a safe distance! How miraculous for three young men to survive in a furnace whose flames leapt to a height of forty-nine cubits, not suffering injury but walking about with joy as in a place of delight! The three gladly sang the praises of Almighty God and emerged from their ordeal with greater strength and vigor than before while the fire could not so much as singe a single fibre of their clothing. Great indeed are the marvels to be found in Babylon's furnace; yet they merely foreshadow the miracles which we find in the furnace of the glowing Heart of the Queen of Angels.

It is a great miracle. to witness fire and water subsisting side by side in the furnace of Nabuchodonosor. The fire did not turn the cooling water into steam nor did the water quench the burning beat of the fire. What manner of fire is this? It is the fire of divine love burning in the Virginal Heart of Mary. What is the cooling dew? It is the water of tribulation, which so often flooded the holy Heart of the Mother of Sorrows. The fire of love did not dry up the waters of affliction; and the waters of tribulation were unable, I shall not say to extinguish, but even to diminish in the least degree the divine ardor of that heavenly fire: "Many waters cannot quench charity." (11) On the contrary, the excess of love pro. duced the abundance of affliction and the waters of tribulation were like inflammable liquids that augmented still further the fire of her love.

Is it not a great miracle to see a fire possessing at once the virtue of fire and the properties of water? Love has the virtue of fire, that it may unceasingly inflame the Virgin Mother's purest Heart with its sacred ardour, and also the properties of water, as it extinguishes entirely the fire of self - love and of attachment to vain and perishable things.

Is it not a great miracle to behold a fire refreshing, consoling and fining with joy the children of the Mother of God, while it pursues, burns, devours its enemies? Her virginal Heart, which i s ablaze with love for her true children, directs the fire and flame of its anger against those who injure or scandalize her loved ones.

Only three Hebrew boys were thrown into the furnace of Babylon, but all children of the admirable Mother of God can enter the furnace of her Heart and dwell there as in a paradise of delights where they praise and (10). Dan. 3, 50 (11). Cant. 8, 7

glorify God forever in company with their heavenly Mother, and their hearts are filled with joy and consolation. "'Me dwelling in thee is as it were of all rejoicing," (12) 0 holy Mother of God.

Three Hebrew children walked safely in the first furnace; yet the prophet saw there four, and the fourth was like the Son of God. "The form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (13) Actually i t was an angel, representing, according to Daniel, the Only-begotten Son of God in the Babylonian furnace, but this same Son of God resides and dwells in person in the glowing Heart of His most holy Mother. He is all fire and flame of love and charity. "The Lord thy God is a consuming fire." ( 1 4 ) He possesses a throne of fire. "His throne like flames of fire," (15) and a "fiery chariot." ( 1 6 ) In like manner, He wills to have a dwelling of fire and flame in the Heart of His most worthy Mother. This dwelling-place was depicted in the words: "The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame," (17) which means that the abode of Jesus Christ, prefigured by Jacob and Joseph, shall be an abode of flaming fire.

We also notice that the three young men were bound hand and foot when thrown into the furnace, but immediately their bonds were consumed by the fire and they were freed within the furnace. Come, come, poor slaves of sin and of the world! Come, slaves of passion, of self-love and self-will, chained in the irons and fetters of Babylon! Fear not to plunge into our sacred furnace!

These flames will not harm you; instead they will destroy your fetters and establish you in the holy liberty of the children of God and of His loving Mother. They will inflame your hearts with the fire of heavenly love, they will transform them into divine fire itself. Your hearts will become holy furnaces heated seven times with the fire and flames that leap from the Heart of your heavenly Mother. Your hearts must become furnaces of eternal love, if they would avoid being ranked with the miserable hearts of the wicked against whom the terrible sentence was ut. tered: "Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire, in the time of thy anger." (18)

What dost Thou will to do, 0 Lord, with the ungrateful wretches, (12). Ps. 86, 7. (13). Dan. 3, 92. (14). Deut, 4, 24. (15). Dan. 7, 9. (16). 4 Kings 2, 11. (17). Abdias 1, 18. (18). PS. 20, 10.

whom Thou didst create to love Thee, whose obligations to love Thee are boundless, yet who have loved everything but Thee, and have even kindled fires of insult and heaped outrages upon "Thee? Thou shalt make of them furnaces of wrath, in the time of Thy terrible vengeance. Thou shalt hurl them into the eternal fire prepared for Satan and his minions, where they will be swallowed, burned and penetrated by the infernal fire. In life these souls would not permit the sweet and radiant flames of Thy holy love to burn within them, so they shall be yielded to the eternal torments of devouring fire in endless hell.

Would you avoid this tragedy, the greatest of all misfortunes? Then give your hearts to your admirable Queen, imploring her to offer them to her beloved Son with the prayer that He may kindle in them the fire He came to spread on earth, the fire He so greatly desires should be lighted. On your part, correspond by removing every obstacle from your hearts, and if this sacred flame is already burning there, make every effort to increase it more and more, by the practice of Christian virtues, the meditation of the gospel and especially the exercise of divine love and charity.

Be not satisfied with doing simply this. Seek to share actively in the ardent desire of the Son of God that the entire world should be illuminated with heavenly fire and to cooperate with him i n spreading it everywhere. Nothing could be more agreeable to His Divine Majesty. All Christians who would please God should exert themselves towards this end but more especially should those whom He has chosen to be His cooperators in the salvation of souls. Take, then, a torch in your hand and, i f possible, set the entire world afire with love. (19)

If you ask me what this torch should be, I shall answer that is yourself. Each one is a torch. Have you not heard the Holy Ghost my of the Prophet Elias that he rose up like fire, and that his words were like a burning torch? "And Elias the prophet stood up, as a fire: and his word burnt like a torch." (20) And does the Son of God describe St. John the Baptist as "a burning and a shining light " ? (21) When speaking through Zacharias of the time at which He shall work great wonders in His Church and in the entire world, God describes the leaders of Juda, namely, the Apostles and the other participants in the fulfilment of His desire to enkindle the earth with the fire of heaven, stating that they (19). This thought is expressed in the symbolic picture, Our Lady of Hearts, which St. John Eudes distributed among the faithful. See reproduction opposite p. 96. (20). Ecclus. 48, 1. (21). John 5, 35.

shall be like a furnace of fire and a burning torch, consuming and devouring peoples to the right and to the left like fire which devours wood and hay. This means that His disciples will enkindle everything, fusing earthly and carnal-minded men into heavenly and spiritual beings, aglow with love of God and charity towards their neighbor. "In that day I will make the governors of Juda like a furnace of fire amongst wood, and as a firebrand amongst hay; and they shall devour all the people round about, to the right hand, and to the left." (22)

This is what you must become if you profess a particular obligation to work for the salvation of souls. You must-be made of fire like Elias, and of flame like St. John the Baptist. Each of you must be a burning furnace, a fiery, radiant torch; aglow within, shining without; ardent before God, and shining before men: ardent in prayer and brilliant in action; ardent with the love of God, and luminous with charity for your neighbor.

But where will you light your torch and obtain the fire which you must kindle in the hearts of men? It must be in the furnace of the Holy Heart of the Mother of Fair Love. To this end, approach the holy furnace of her Heart more frequently with respect and veneration. Concentrate upon the divine fire inflaming her Heart; imitate its all- glowing love and charity and humbly beg of our Mother most merciful that she may kindle in your hearts sparks of the celestial fire which burns in her own.

Having lighted and seized your torch, you will set everything on fire to the right and to the left, that is, you will inflame the hearts of the just, and at the same time set fire to the hearts of sinners through the ardent example of your actions, the bright fervor of your prayers and the light of your teaching.

0 divine fire that burns in the noble Heart of our glorious Mother, come, come into the hearts of all men! Extinguish every other fire, destroying whatever would resist Thee. Burn, inflame, set on fire, transform into Thyself the hearts of men that they may become all fire and flames of love for Him Who created them that they might love Him and Him alone! Grant that we may say with St. Augustine and in as holy a frame of mind: "0 sacred fire, how sweet and pleasant is thy heat! How intimate and penetrating thy light, how amiable and desirable thy burning coals! Woe to them on whom thou shinest not, to them whom thou dost not burn!" (23) Happy they who arc illuminated by the light and burned with thy sacred flame! (22). Zach. 12, 6. (23). Soliloq. Cap. 34.

Come, then, most holy fire; come, heavenly flames; come divine furnace come, torrents, come flaming floods of the adorable fire of eternal love! Sweep over us and over every rational creature i n the world! Burn everything, set all things on fire, that everything may be melted and fused into an eternal fire of love and charity towards Him Who is all love and charity towards us. St. Augustine adds these words: "0 fire ever burning and never dying out! 0 love always ardent and never weakening, inflame my entire being that I may love thee with all my heart." 99-