“Now the king's servants that had cast them in, ceased not to heat the furnace with brimstone and tow, and pitch, and dry sticks, and the flame mounted up above the furnace nine and forty cubits. And it broke forth, and burnt such of the Chaldeans as it found near the furnace. But the angel of the Lord went down with Azarias and his companions into the furnace and he drove the flame of the fire out of the furnace, and made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew, and the fire touched them not at all, nor troubled them, nor did them any harm.”  (Daniel 3:46-50)

I went to India as a young man and I found myself from the start at home with the people, fascinated by its traditions, charmed by the depth of its thought, dazzled by the variety of its riches. I discovered landscapes and enjoyed monsoons, I saw blue skies with shining stars at night as I had never seen in any part of the world, and I travelled through countless lands with desert dunes and date palms, with length of beaches and darkened forests, with crowded cities and people at peace. I enjoyed the exotic food of clay furnaces, the concupiscent tang of age-old spices. Everything was fine and everything lifted my life to new hights, and I was not harmed by snakes nor laid to bed by mosquitoes nor attacked by tigers nor crushed by elephants though I did see all of that in that blessed land. But there is one thing that never agreed with me in India. A heavy weight and a permanent trouble that taxed my strength and caused uneasiness. A penance in lands of joy, a suffering in the fields of enjoyment. The heat.

Dry heat and humid heat, desert heat and monsoon heat, noonday heat and evening heat and night heat. Heat that never ceases, never forgives, never stops. Heat that affects work and defeats sleep. Heat that drenches the clothes and melts the mind. Heat and heat and heat. My body was shaped near the Pyrenees Mountains and it never got used to the latitude of the tropics. My Nordic stature bent under the vertical sun. My skin got tired of sweating. Sometimes a thin layer of human salt covered my forehead as perspiration dried out on it. A Lenten season of heat.

Because of that, and because of all the heat I’ve had to go through in my life, I want to befriend the angel of the furnace in Babylon, to see whether his refreshing breath can bring me cold breeze and dew in the middle of the fire of heat upon earth. Let him teach me to be in the fire without burning, to live in the heat without suffering, to look at the thermometer without flinching, to turn in bed without waking up. I don’t ask that he should suppress the heat for me, as I’m not going to change meteorology for my own sake, but that he teaches me to stand in the midst of fire and tolerate it. He need not change the climate, but he may change my inner resistance, my rebellious complaint, my open protest, my frayed temper, my tragic self-pity. I know the problem lies with me, because I’ve known companions as sensible to climate as I am who easily put up with it, but I refuse to acknowledge it and take to blaming the thermometer for the heat wave at summer. The true blame is with me and my mind and my stubbornness.

That is why I need always the good angel with me. The angel of Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, young men of the people of Israel and servants to King Nebuchadnezzar, who refused to prostrate before the golden statue of the king and worship it. Their refusal kindled the king’s anger, and at his bidding the furnace was heated seven times stronger. The fire burned the king’s servants and circled menacingly the three young men. But the angel cooled the air around them and they burst into song.

It is in their song that I find their secret. I listen attentively to its verses, and my eyes open. This is what the three young men are saying:

“Bless the Lord, sun and moon;
sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, you stars of heaven;
sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, all rain and dew;
sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, fire and heat;
 sing his praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, searing blast and bitter cold;
sing his praise and exalt him for ever.”  
(3:40-45)

There it is! The secret is to thank God for everything. For the rain and the dew, for the fire and the heat. To praise the Lord for all he has done, for all that happens, for all that comes my way. The moment I start choosing, I sink. If I choose dew and reject fire, fear enters my soul, I become suspicious and I fly away, I avoid the very name of fire and I take refuge in the dew if I find it or in my desire and nostalgia if I don’t have it at hand. And that sets my soul out of balance. Desiring, longing, avoiding, refusing. Preferences enter my soul, and peace departs. My heat complex shakes my mind and jeopardises my peace. I have to learn how to take the weather as it comes, how to greet winds and clouds and frost and searing heat. To pray to the Lord for everything, as the Lord made all things and all climates, and it is in their variety and their succession that we find the value of creation, the meaning of change, the glory of life. Fire and heat, bless the Lord! Cold and heat, bless the Lord!

This change of attitude is the key towards reconciliation. It is not the temperature that makes me suffer, it is my mind. It is not perspiration, but my rebellion against perspiration. It is not the forty-eight degrees in the shadow but my fear to see them in the thermometer. It is not nature but my own complex. A cold drink does not relieve the heat, but it underlines its presence. External means are no help as they are artificial, costly, and uncertain. The true remedy is within ourselves.

The best cooling system in the heat is to praise aloud the Lord for it. Wholeheartedly, joyfully, generously. To accept reality and to praise him who made it. That is the way of peace and the source of satisfaction. This is what the angel of the furnace at Babylon is teaching me. Patron saint of refrigeration. Ask the three young men in the furnace of Babylon.

I keep singing with them:
 
“Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord!  
All powers of the Lord, praise the Lord!”