17 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”” John 8:31–32
King Nebuchadnezzar has set up a golden statue, and everyone must fall down before it when the music plays. Three young Jews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refuse. Brought before the furious king, they give an answer that has strengthened believers ever since: “If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods.” But if not: their faithfulness does not depend on being rescued. The furnace is heated seven times hotter and they are thrown in bound. Then the king leaps up in amazement: “I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.” The Fathers saw in the fourth figure a foreshadowing of the Son of God, who comes into our fire. Instead of the usual Psalm, the Church today sings part of the hymn of the three young men from the Greek text of Daniel: “Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our ancestors, and to be praised and highly exalted forever.”
In the Gospel Jesus speaks of another kind of freedom: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” His hearers protest that as children of Abraham they have never been slaves. Jesus answers: “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin… So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” The debate in this chapter is sharp, and it reflects the painful arguments between the early Christians and the synagogue of John's day; it is never a licence for contempt of the Jewish people, from whom, as Jesus says elsewhere, salvation comes (John 4:22). Today the Church remembers St Patrick (about 385 to about 461). Captured as a boy in Britain and enslaved in Ireland, he learned to pray on the hillsides while tending sheep. He escaped, became a priest and a bishop, and went back freely to the land of his slavery to bring it the Gospel. In his Confession he writes (in substance) that he was like a stone lying deep in the mud until the Mighty One lifted him up. Patrick knew both kinds of slavery and both kinds of freedom. Like the three young men, he served God whether or not he was spared, and the truth made him free.
Theme: “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
Faith that does not bargain, God in the fire, and the freedom of the Son; St Patrick.
“If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” Daniel 3:17–18
“But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” Acts 5:29
Apply: Name one idol you bow to, and refuse it this week for the love of God.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2
“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
Apply: In your present trial, pray each day: Lord, walk with me in this fire.
“I shall walk at liberty, for I have sought your precepts.” Psalm 119:45
“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
Apply: Bring your heaviest chain to confession before Easter, and let the Son set you free.
The three young men and St Patrick served God whether or not they were spared.
The Son of God walks with us in the fire and makes us free indeed.
Take-home resolution: Pray St Patrick's Breastplate each morning of Holy Week.
Dear friends, three young men stand before a furious king. Bow to the golden statue, or burn. They answer: if our God is able to deliver us, let him deliver us. But if not, we will not serve your gods (Daniel 3:17–18). Their faith does not depend on a rescue. They will be faithful either way.
They are thrown into the furnace, and the king sees four men walking in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods. God does not always keep us out of the fire. He comes into it with us.
Jesus speaks of freedom: if you continue in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:31–36). The worst slavery is not chains on the hands, but sin in the heart.
St Patrick knew both. Enslaved as a boy in Ireland, he found God while tending sheep in the cold. Freed, he chose to return as a bishop to the land of his slavery, to make its people free in Christ. Let us ask today for faith that does not bargain and for the freedom only the Son can give. Amen.
Children, three young men would not bow down to a golden statue, because they loved God. They were thrown into a fire, but God was with them, and they came out without even the smell of smoke! St Patrick was a slave as a boy, but he became a bishop and taught Ireland about Jesus. Say today: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me!
Lord God of our ancestors, blessed are you and highly exalted for ever. Give us the faith of the three young men, who served you whether or not they were rescued, and walk with us in every fire. Lord Jesus, make us free from the slavery of sin. Through the prayers of St Patrick, who returned in love to the land of his captivity, make us bold witnesses of the Gospel. Amen.
Today both readings ask what it means to be truly free. Three young men in Babylon are bound and thrown into a furnace, and they walk about unbound in the fire, for no king owns their worship. Jesus says to those who are proud of never having been slaves that sin has its own slavery, and that the Son sets people loose from it. The key words are but if not, continue and make free.
Setting.
The stories in Daniel 1–6 are set in the court of Babylon. Many scholars think the book reached its final form in the second century BC, during the persecution under Antiochus IV, when Jews were being forced to give up their faith. Whatever the date, it was read as a word for people in that very danger. The dying Mattathias recalled these three to his sons: “Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael believed and were saved from the flame” (1 Maccabees 2:59).
Between vv. 23 and 91 the Greek Bible has the prayer of Azariah and the song of the three young men, from which today’s psalm is taken. The Lectionary passes over the prayer and goes on to the king’s astonishment.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.” (3:17)
The “if” does not doubt God’s power. It refuses to tell God what he must do. The Malayalam POC states it more firmly: he is able, and he will deliver.
“But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” (3:18)
Here is mature faith. They do not serve God for the rescue. Many who have died for the faith, and whom no angel brought out of the fire, have lived by these words.
“But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt;” (3:92)
They went in bound (3:21), and now they walk unbound. And they are not alone there. God’s help comes not around the furnace but inside it.
“who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him.” (3:95)
A pagan king ends up as a witness to the God he had challenged. His question in v. 15 has been answered.
How the Church reads it.
Many early Christian writers saw a figure of the Son of God in the fourth man, while the text itself speaks of an angel. The three young men in the furnace are a frequent scene in catacomb art, and St Cyprian set them before Christians facing persecution (in substance). The Catechism warns that idolatry is not only a matter of pagan statues: we commit it whenever we honor a creature in place of God, such as power, pleasure, race, the state or money (CCC 2113). For those who suffer for the faith in many lands today, this reading is a companion, and a call to pray for them and for those who wrong them.
Setting.
Jesus now speaks to people who “had believed in him” (8:31), and the talk becomes a dispute within one family of faith, about who are the true children of Abraham. The language in this chapter is sharp, as arguments among close kin can be. John’s Gospel was written at a time when, many scholars think, relations between Christians and the synagogue were painful. These words may never be used against the Jewish people (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;” (8:31)
The verse sets out the order: staying with his word, then knowing, then being made free. Freedom is at the end of a road of discipleship.
“and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (8:32)
Often quoted without its first half. In John the truth is not only an idea but a person: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6).
“everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” (8:34)
They appeal to their descent, but Jesus speaks of something any person can know from within. Paul describes the same slavery (Romans 6:17–18; 7:15).
“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (8:36)
Only the Son of the house has the standing to release a slave. Grace is what sets us free.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine says that the beginning of freedom is to be free from crimes (in substance), and St John Paul II quotes him in Veritatis Splendor 13. The same pope wrote that Christ meets people of every age with these same words about truth and freedom (Redemptor Hominis 12). The Catechism draws the lesson: the more one does what is good, the freer one becomes, and a choice for evil leads to “the slavery of sin” (CCC 1733; see also 2466).
Why does Jesus speak so harshly to people who had believed?
He is warning people he has not given up on, as the prophets warned Israel. They rightly honor Abraham, and Jesus says so (8:37). His point is that being a child of Abraham shows in doing what Abraham did: welcoming God’s word. The warning applies first to us: being baptized and belonging to a Catholic family does not excuse us from it.