This Saturday, in the liturgical structure prior to the reforms of 1950, is traditionally dedicated to meditation on divine justice in contrast with human iniquity, being historically known by the figures of Susanna and the adulterous woman. The commemoration of this day seeks to instruct the faithful about the omniscience of God, who knows the most hidden secrets of hearts and intervenes in favor of the oppressed just. The Church proposes the parallel between the Old and the New Testament to demonstrate that the same Providence that raised up the prophet Daniel to save the chaste Susanna from a false accusation is the one that, in Christ, rescues the sinner from death, confounding the hypocrisy of the false judges. It is a day of purification of the gaze and of judgment, preparing the penitent to understand that only God is the just Judge, capable of exercising mercy without violating the truth.
📖 Introit (Ps 5, 2-3)
Verba mea auribus percipe, Dómine, intéllige clamórem meum: inténde voci oratiónis meæ, Rex meus et Deus meus. Ps. ibid., 4. Quóniam ad te orábo, Dómine: mane exáudies vocem meam.
Hear my words with your ears, Lord, understand my cry: attend to the voice of my prayer, my King and my God. For to you I will pray, Lord: in the morning you will hear my voice.
📜 Epistle (Dn 13, 1-62)
In those days: There was a man who dwelt in Babylon, called Joachim, and he took for wife one called Susanna, daughter of Helcias, very beautiful and God-fearing, because her parents, being just, had taught their daughter according to the law of Moses. Joachim was very rich, and had an orchard adjacent to his house; and the Jews flocked much to it, because he was the most honored of all. In that year two elders of the people were appointed judges, of whom the Lord said that iniquity came out from Babylon from the elder judges, who seemed to rule the people. These frequented the house of Joachim, and all who had any business came to them. It happened that, when the people retired at noon, Susanna entered the orchard of her husband, and walked. The two elders, who saw her every day enter and walk, conceived an evil passion for her, and perverted their heart, turning their eyes away so as not to look at heaven, nor remember the just judgments of God. It happened that, one day as she was bathing, as she did on previous days, because it was very hot, she came to the orchard only with two maids, and wanted to bathe, because of the heat. There was no one there, except the two hidden elders, who were spying on her. Susanna said to the maids: Bring me the oil and the ointments, and close the doors of the orchard, so that I may bathe. They did as she had ordered them, and closed the doors of the orchard, and went out through the side doors to bring what had been commanded them, not knowing that the elders were hidden inside. As soon as the maids left, the two elders rose, ran to her, and said: Behold that the doors of the orchard are closed, no one sees us, and we are in love with you; consent to us, therefore, and unite with us. If you do not want to, we will give testimony against you, that a young man was with you, and that is why you sent your maids away. Susanna, sighing, said: I am in anguish on all sides; because if I do this, it is death to me; and if I do not do it, I will not escape your hands. But it is better for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the presence of the Lord. And Susanna gave a great cry; but the elders also cried out against her. And running one of them, opened the doors of the orchard. Hearing those of the house the cry in the orchard, they entered hastily through the side door to see what it was. And when the elders began to speak, the servants were very confused, because such a thing had never been heard of Susanna. The next day, when the people gathered in the house of Joachim, her husband, the two elders also came full of an evil intent against Susanna, to make her die. And they said before the people: Send to call Susanna, daughter of Helcias, wife of Joachim. And they sent to call her. She came with her parents, her children and all her relatives. Susanna was very delicate and beautiful of face; and those wicked men ordered that her face be uncovered (because it was covered), to satiate themselves with her beauty. Her relatives and all who saw her wept. The two elders rising in the midst of the people, placed their hands on her head. She, weeping, looked to heaven, because her heart trusted in the Lord. The elders said: While we were alone walking in the orchard, this one entered with two maids, and closed the doors of the orchard, and dismissed the maids. A young man who was hidden came to her, and lay with her. We, who were in a corner of the orchard, seeing this iniquity, ran to them; and we saw them together in sin, but we could not catch the man, because he was stronger than us, and opening the doors he fled. This one, however, we caught, and asking her who the young man was, she did not want to tell us. Of this we are witnesses. The multitude believed them, as elders and judges of the people, and condemned her to death. Susanna gave a great cry and said: O eternal God, who knows what is hidden, who knows all things before they happen, you know that these have raised false testimony against me; and behold I die, without having done anything of what these maliciously invented against me. And the Lord heard her voice. And when she was being led to the execution, God raised up the holy spirit in a young man called Daniel, who exclaimed with a great voice: I am clean of the blood of this one! Turning all the people to him, said: What word is this that you have said? He, being in the midst of them, said: Are you so foolish, sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth you have condemned a daughter of Israel? Return to the place of judgment, because these have given false testimony against her. Then all the people returned with great haste; and the elders said to him: Come, sit in the midst of us, and give us part, for God has given you the honor of old age. Daniel said to them: Separate them one from the other, and I will examine them. When they were separated one from the other, he called one of them and said to him: O you, who have grown old in days of wickedness, now your sins have come, which you committed before, giving unjust sentences, oppressing the innocent and absolving the guilty, when the Lord says: You shall not kill the innocent and the just. Now, therefore, if you saw her, tell me: under what tree did you see them together? He answered: Under a mastic tree. Daniel said: You have lied well against your head; because behold the angel of God, having received the sentence from him, will split you in the middle. And ordering him to leave, he commanded that the other come, and said to him: O seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you, and concupiscence has perverted your heart; thus you did to the daughters of Israel, and they, out of fear, united with you, but a daughter of Judah did not consent to your iniquity. Tell me, therefore, now: under what tree did you catch them together? He answered: Under an oak tree. Daniel said to him: You too have lied well against your head; because the angel of the Lord is waiting with the sword to cut you in the middle, and to exterminate both of you. Then all the multitude gave a great cry, and blessed God, who saves those who hope in him. And they rose against the two elders (because Daniel had convinced them by their own mouth of false testimony), and did to them as they had intended to do to the neighbor; and according to the law of Moses they killed them; and the innocent blood was saved on that day.
📖 Gospel (Jn 8, 1-11)
At that time: Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning he returned to the temple, and all the people came to him; and, sitting down, he taught them. Now the scribes and Pharisees brought him a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, placing her in the midst, they said to him: Master, this woman was just now caught in adultery. In the law Moses commanded us that such should be stoned; you, then, what do you say? They said this, tempting him, to have something to accuse him. But Jesus, stooping down, wrote with his finger on the ground. And, as they insisted on questioning him, he stood up and said to them: He among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. And, stooping down again, he wrote on the ground. They, however, hearing this, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman, who was in the midst. Then Jesus, standing up, and seeing no one else but the woman, said to her: Woman, where are those who accused you? Has no one condemned you? She said: No one, Lord. And Jesus said to her: Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.
⚖️ The justice of God that protects innocence and forgives misery
In the Gospel of this Saturday, the mercy of Christ manifests itself not as a denial of the Law, but as its charitable fullness in disarming the hypocrisy of the accusers. Saint Augustine, in his commentary on the Gospel of John (Sermon 13), observes that in the end only two remained: misery and mercy. The Savior, by writing on the earth, points to the common fragility of fallen human nature, reminding that hasty judgment against the neighbor ignores one’s own debt to God. The command of “sin no more” establishes that divine absolution is a cure that requires the firm resolution of a new life, transforming the encounter with the Lord into a milestone of spiritual and moral regeneration for the sinful soul that, before the incarnate Holiness, recognizes its need for redemption.
The reading of Daniel presents the triumph of divine justice through the intervention of the prophetic spirit over the corruption of earthly judges, establishing that God is the guardian of the honor of those who are faithful to Him. Susanna, by preferring death to the transgression of the divine commandment, exemplifies the Christian fortitude that does not bend before the coercion of evil, basing her confidence on the omniscience of God who probes the kidneys and the hearts. Saint John Chrysostom (Homily 86 on John) emphasizes that divine wisdom often uses right discernment to confound the proud and reveal the falsity of those who pervert justice under the appearance of authority. The preservation of Susanna’s life is a prophetic announcement of the victory of Truth over darkness, demonstrating that the Lord never abandons those who, amid extreme tribulation and human isolation, maintain absolute fidelity to His precepts.
The connection between the heroic chastity of Susanna and the restoring forgiveness granted to the adulterous woman reveals God’s pedagogy for the Lenten soul: the protection of the innocent and the rehabilitation of the repentant sinner converge in the sovereignty of divine judgment. While Daniel saves Susanna by the light of inspired prophetic reason, unmasking the lie of the elders, Christ saves the sinner by the light of supreme charity, unmasking the hidden sin of the accusers. Both figures teach that true spiritual discernment must be accompanied by humility and the awareness that judgment belongs only to God, for He does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he convert and live in the righteousness of the new Covenant.