Daily Mass - Monday of the fifth week of Lent

Mass was offered today, as requested, for a private intention. The church is delightfully bright, because of the large sky-lighted sanctuary, and, after I replaced the red pilot-light in the sanctuary, that comfortable glow is once more present, more vivid naturally in the darkness.

Mass today had the longest reading of all for the first reading: the story of the holy woman Susanna, who was devoted to the Law of God, and who was unjustly accused of adultery by two unscrupulous elders of the people of a Jewish community in the land of Babylon (modern-day Iraq). If you don't know this story, you may find it in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Daniel. It is a sordid story, but unfortunately easily understood today by us, for the human heart has not changed much since this story was told, some five hundred or so years before Christ. The two wicked old men try to 'frame' Susanna  and have her killed to hide their own filthy voyeurism and illicit desire. The beautiful part of the story comes with Susanna's cry to heaven and the instant reply:

"They were elders, they were judges of the people, and they persuaded the assembly, without more ado, to pass the death sentence. Whereupon Susanna cried aloud, 'Eternal God, no secret is hidden from Thee, nothing comes to pass without Thy foreknowledge. Thou knowest that these men have borne false witness against me; wilt Thou let me die, a woman innocent of all the charges their malice has invented?' 

And the Lord listened to her plea; even as she was being led off to her death, all at once He roused to utterance the holy spirit that dwelt in a young boy there, called Daniel. This Daniel raised his voice and cried out, I will be no party to the death of this woman..." 

- Daniel, chapter 13

And thus was an innocent woman saved from death, and the prophet Daniel exalted. The Gospel message is an interesting parallel: it is the story of the woman caught in adultery and brought to Christ by the elders of the people, to trap Him. Here is a woman actually guilty, this time, of the crime, but once more, it is the guilt of the elders that is exposed, this time by Christ Himself. I can't remember who first suggested that what the Lord was writing on the ground with his finger was a list of the crimes committed by the men who were seeking both to condemn this woman, and to somehow demonstrate publicly that Christ was prepared to disregard a crucial point of biblical morality. And He turns the tables on them, by inviting them to make the condemnation themselves. If, that is, they can stand to be on trial themselves.

An old tradition says that this unfortunate woman was none other than Saint Mary Magdalene, the great penitent and one of the most faithful of the disciples of Christ. This tradition was taken up in the famous 2004 film, the Passion of the Christ. Here's a clip from that:

"Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, 

'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?'

She replied, 'No one, sir.'

Then Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you.

Go, and from now on do not sin any more.'"

- Gospel of Saint John 8: 10-11