Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 27, 2023
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62
Today’s First Reading shows us the chaste Susanna, falsely accused by the sinful Jewish elders. The Gospel reading is about the woman taken in adultery: guilty, but saved from death by Jesus’ intervention. There are lots of lessons in these two stories, but one element common to both is mercy.
Jesus tells the Jewish leaders trying to entrap him that mercy is more important than strict, rigid enforcement of the law. Daniel tells the people that if the law is to be implemented, it had better be done properly and justly, with merciful care for those involved.
We all need God’s mercy for ourselves and for the community in which we live. Harsh and pitiless application of the law is not the way God works.
