Lent ends on Holy Thursday. With the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we begin the Easter Triduum. That means that, as of today, there are 10 more days left in Lent. There is still time to dig in and make this a fruitful Lent.
The readings for this last full week of Lent move away from the usual pattern. Each day we read from a different book.
Today we hear the story of Sussana, a woman who some could call a victim of her culture and the legal system of the time.
In the story a group of men decide to trap her into having sex with them.
the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us; give in to our desire, and lie with us. If you refuse, we will testify against you that you dismissed your maids because a young man was here with you.
The Jewish law requires a minimum of two witnesses. Roman law would follow the custom, with the dictum, “One witness is no witness.”
More problematic was the list of people who could not be witnesses. Maimonides lists ten classes of persons who are not competent to attest or testify, namely: women, slaves, minors, lunatics, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the contemptible, relatives, and the interested parties.
The reason for the exclusion of women was grammatical. The noun for witnesses in the Old Testament is always masculine. This placed a woman at the absolute mercy of two men or more.
Sussana decides that the only real judge that matters is God.
In the short run this means great pain and humiliation for her. She is accused and forced to go to trial, with all the public scandal that would have accompanied this. We can imagine the chattering of the people, particularly because she was beautiful. She will get the death penalty if convicted.
God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud: “I will have no part in the death of this woman.” All the people turned and asked him, “What is this you are saying?” He stood in their midst and continued, “Are you such fools, O children of Israel! To condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence? Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her.
Because of this boy who himself cannot be a witness under the law, the men are separated and questioned. One says they were under a mastic tree, the other says under an oak. The men are therefore convicted of perjury. Under the law of the time, if you were convicted of perjury, the penalty you attempted to inflict on another was inflicted on you. The men were put to death.
Unfortunately in our modern legal systems things do not always work out so neat and tidy. And then we have the court of the Internet.
More than ever the examp,e of Sussana is worth our attention. She chose to focus not on the court or on what people would say. She focused solely on the judgement of God. The only truly just Judge. The judge who unfailingly sees the truth.
In these last ten days of Lent, perhaps it is time for each of us to look deep inside and ask how we would stand before the judgement seat of Christ. Of what would we stand convicted?
Th good news is that Christ has given us a way, even when we are guilty of sin, to have it expunged. We call it the Sacrament of Penance, confession. Through Pennace and yes Indulgence, God washes us clean and restores us.
Let us fearlessly face our sin and in trust embrace the mercy of God.
