Daring to die: absolute commitment to righteousness

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Fifth week

March 18, 2024 -  Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; John 8: 1-11

Through the desert God leads us to freedom, and we are in the last lap of this journey as we begin the last week before the Holy Week. This week the Word shall lead us through a reflection on what it means to dare to die! And today we have a radical signification: it is an absolute commitment to righteousness.

Let us begin with the first reading - the famous story of Susanna. She had made an absolute choice for righteousness. Come what may, she did not give up her choice for righteousness, she detested any compromise. The result: she was plotted against, cornered, accused falsely and judged to deserve death. What did she do? Looked for ways to redeem herself by hook or by crook? No, she dared to die, for the sake of her commitment to righteousness. She stands an iconic precedence of Jesus Christ, who had done the same - chose to remain righteous and dared to die for it.

Turning our focus to the Gospel - we have another woman here, who had not chosen initially righteousness as her way of life! She was not accused falsely, although there was nothing that warranted the righteousness of those who accused her. What did she do? She had resigned herself to death. She knew she would not live any more, but to her surprise, life was given back to her, with a challenge: go and sin no more! Now what did she do? She chose righteousness, we guess and remained a disciple of Christ! 

The message is clear: our call to righteousness comes from our very identity as children of God. If we made an absolute commitment to righteousness right from the beginning, blessed be the Lord, we shall stand testimonies to the presence of God. But if we had failed or even if we fail repeatedly, there is the call to recommit to righteousness, how ready are we to commit ourselves? That is the question. 

Now the added challenge is: when we commit to righteousness, which in itself is a difficult task, there will be more challenges and crises to face. What would we do? Dare to die? Then we shall rise with the one who is the Eternal Righteousness. We shall rise to glory, but we need to dare to die, in our absolute commitment to righteousness.