3/23/2015 – Monday of fifth week of Lent – Daniel 13:41c-62

      Today, in our first reading, we hear the story of Susanna from the book of Daniel.   Daniel is a popular figure in the Old Testament.  Most of us can probably remember the story of Daniel from our childhood religious education classes, of Daniel being thrown in the lion’s den for having disobeyed the law enacted by King Darius of Persia that no one was to offer a prayer to any god or any man except him for 40 days.  Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, but God rescued Daniel for his faithfulness, with the lion instead devouring Daniel’s enemies. The book of Daniel is a part of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Protestant version of the Bible, but today’s story of Susanna is omitted from these Scriptures, but is included in our Catholic Old Testament. Today, we heard the short version of the reading, and even that shortened version is quite long.  In this story, the prophet and seer Daniel rescues Susanna from a stoning after she is falsely accused of adultery by two corrupt judges.  God, through Daniel, defends her and exposes the evil of these two judges.  God uses both Susanna as a tool to rectify the evil of the two judges who oppressed many innocent people through unjust judgments.

       Sometimes the humble and the just are the heroes of the story, like Susanna and Daniel.  But sometimes life isn’t fair, is it?  We look at the person who breaks the rules or breaks God commandments, and sometimes we don’t see any consequences to that, and we think: “Well, maybe I should go ahead and do that, too.”  That doesn’t excuse us.  That is not an invitation for us to sin.  All the little things add up.  John of the Cross once said: “The Lord measures out perfection neither by the multitude nor the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them.”

       Susanna and Daniel are just two of many examples in Sacred Scripture for those who had the courage to stand up for what was right.   May we have the courage to do the matter, in all matters, both big and small.  As we continue in the last couple weeks of our Lenten journey, may we feel the Lord encouraging us to live out our faith in virtue and humility.