22 March 2021
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Our readings reveal the power of truth-telling in our world and its intimate connection with mercy and justice.
The first reading has a shortened version, but if you have time, read the longer version. The shortened version focuses on Daniel to the expense of explaining the scenario which Susanna faces. The men who desire her lay an insidious trap where she is left with no viable option: she must either lay with these men, or face public persecution and death. She pleads her case in front of a crowd who has been primed to disregard what she says. Her last recourse is to God to hear her plea. While speaking the truth, the Lord moves Daniel to intervene, and he shows the discrepancy in the stories of Susanna’s accusers. Susanna’s public cry, as with the cry of all victims, should pierce our heart, and awaken us to realities to which we were blind before. The truth sets not only the victim but also the crowd free.
The crowd’s challenge of Jesus in the Gospel story remains always a story that gives us pause, for it was moment’s worth of self-reflection that Jesus gave. Jesus does not respond to the unjust questions of crowd. He remains silent, and stirs them to become aware of the forces driving them to lead these women into humiliation and potentially death. “Let the one among you without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” The line confronts the crowd as it does for us today. Who among us cannot say that he or she has not sinned? Who can say that we have never been in need of mercy when we have objectively wronged someone? Jesus does not say the woman was wrongly accused, which differs from the case of Susanna; he does not condemn her. He reminds her to sin no more in the hope this experience of mercy will lead to a new beginning in her life.
Lent offers us the chance to pause, and to be renewed in the gaze of Jesus who sees and hears us. We need Jesus’ intervention both when we are the victim in search of justice and when we have sinned. Jesus does not condemn us, but gives us the strength to admit wrong-doing and seek amends where possible.
Where does the Lord gaze meet you this day in your need for justice and mercy?