Commentary on Prayer of Azariah

Pseudo-Chrysostom

I declare that this sacrifice (I am referring to humility) has always been superior to the Jewish sacrifice, not only now but also in the past. In fact, those three young men who in the furnace of Babylon changed the flames into mud; who were mere lads but elders; small but stronger than the many; prisoners but more powerful than the king; they who lost their homeland but not their faith; naked but clothed; poor but well-off; servants but above the free; they who changed the furnace into dew, transforming the elements; who extinguished the strength of the flames; who were bound by the tyrant and loosed by the fire—they sang a hymn, saying, "We have sinned, we have done every kind of evil, departing from you, we have fallen short in every way. We have neither prince, nor leader, nor prophet, nor holocaust, nor sacrifice, nor oblation, nor incense nor place to offer you the firstfruits and to find mercy. May we be received with a contrite heart and a humble spirit."

See also

• More works by Pseudo-Chrysostom

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