Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah, beauty has seduced you,
lust has subverted your conscience.
Today, the church in her Lenten daily readings, sets before us a story in Sacred Scripture taken from what we Catholics call the ‘Deutero-canonical’ Book of Daniel and Protestants refer to as the ‘Apocrapha,’ since they do not view this section of Scripture as directly inspired by God. It is a story that sadly narrates the power of lust to subvert one’s conscience and blind one to the searing goodness of the truth. The story in all it’s alluring power, fit for Netflix, will be found in the 13th chapter of Daniel. Read it!
This powerful story speaks of the inviolability of truth over fake news that is often perpetrated in order to satisfy one’s own petty, foolish and, at times, lustful personal ends. There is nothing new in this story. As the French would say, The more things change, the more they remain the same.
As “People of the Book” – that beautiful phrase that defines the identity of both Jews and Christians who revere God’s revealed truth in the Scriptures – the truth of God’s word and the integrity to which it calls us, defines the very character of what it means to be a Christian.