This story that we hear from the book
of Daniel today is included in our Catholic Bible, but it is excluded from the
Protestant Old Testament. In this story,
we hear about two elders. The people revered these elders for their wisdom and believed
that their word would be more credible than that of the righteous woman named
Susana. These elders thought that their
reputation would cover up their accusations and their lies. Their desires and their need for power
overcame their conscience and what they knew in their hearts to be right. Susana, knowing that she was in an impossibly
difficult situation, still put her trust in the Lord. Susana was saved because of that trust in
God, because of her belief that justice would prevail.
While God’s justice is so clear in the
story of Susana, based upon the facts that we know about this story, I think
that in many of the real-life situations we face in life in our modern society,
justice can be a very difficult and nebulous concept to apply. It helps to think about the difference
between two terms that the ancient Jews had for justice, mishpat &
tzedek. The concept of mishpat
corresponds to way we conceptualize legal justice in the West. Mishpat is the law which permits people to
pursue their own interests as long as they do not infringe on the rights and
freedom of others. Misphat is the
minimum, baseline framework of justice in Jewish society, treating every person
equally. Under misphat, if someone owed
you $1, it is just that he pay you that $1 you are owed. While the misphat concept of justice is
necessary, mishpat alone is not sufficient for a holy society. Tzedek, on the other hand, is a concept of
justice that is infused with God's mercy.
Under tzedek, if a desperately poor person owed you some money, and
paying you back meant a dire hardship for him and his family, perhaps justice
in this case would be you forgiving him his debt. Perhaps we need to have a more balanced
concept of justice in our modern society as we strive to follow God's law, to
not only see justice as allowing us to pursue our own interests and protecting
us from abuses that such a pursuit can yield. God challenges us to go further,
to infuse the justice we live out in our society with the mercy that God shows
us as his people.
As we think about the memorable story
of Susana, of how she places her trust in God and in her belief that justice
would prevail, may we embody the justice that God demands of us as we live out
our faith.
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