De Susanna

On Susanna. We have come to you as conscientious debtors of the word, not fulfilling as much as we owe, but paying back as much as we have. For our eagerness is lavish and has spread out to give more than is owed, but the poverty of our speech is constrained; therefore we give you a little instead of much, begging your indulgence. But if any of you should wish to extend the scantiness of our words by the eagerness of your heart, we will lack nothing toward what is owed, the eagerness of our heart making up for the deficiency of our words. For God, when he sees the meager offerings of a poor man and the lavish ones of a rich man, knows how to receive the honors equally; often he even receives those of the poor man more greatly, for he looks not at the bulk of the wealth but at the eagerness of the heart. A proof of what is said is the case of the poor widow who put the two small coins into the treasury; her meager offering outweighed in the Lord’s sight those of the rich who had thrown in gold, since God has no need of money but of a sincere and well-disposed heart.

Let us therefore also spread out our hearts in sincerity, and, as it were, depositing in the living treasuries of God the word we have received from God, let us pay back to you the debt of the word. For I remember that yesterday I promised you to proclaim the contest of the blessed Susanna’s chastity for the benefit of many—at the same time when Joseph also was contending against the Egyptian woman, and was displaying to us all the wrestlings of chastity. Let Susanna therefore contend in this public theater, where God, angels, men, and women are watching; let her contend, and let her teach how young women must contend for chastity even unto death. This blessed Susanna, then, being noble by birth, reared from her tender years in a small chamber, being comely in beauty and trained in a manner of life of modesty, when the beauty of her youth was in bloom, was joined in lawful marriage. And indeed, preserving the mystery of marriage unharmed for her own husband, she did not cast a disorderly eye upon the sight of youthful and foreign beauty; she did not open her ear to receive the sweet-voiced melodies of prenuptial songs; she did not allow her sense of smell to admit the perfumed smoke of youthful garments; nor did she permit any other sense simply to be carried away, lest the chastity guarded in her heart, being corrupted by soft enticements, be tripped up into pleasures. For most sins arise from the senses of our soul.

The soul is like a virgin in some chamber, resting quietly in the midst of the heart, and attended by the five senses as by certain handmaidens. What senses? Sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch. If, then, no sense is corrupted and led astray, the soul is kept pure and unharmed. But if it happens that sight, left ungoverned, is carried away toward the contemplation of youthful beauty, and the violent wave of desire is admitted through the eyes into the depth of the heart, then, fanned by a tempest of pleasures, it is borne submerged toward sin, having suffered shipwreck with respect to chastity. And it then experiences what David, having suffered, said: "I came into the depths of the sea, and a storm overwhelmed me." Similarly, if hearing, being opened wide, receives the allurements of beautiful song, stretching the mind toward them, it draws itself entirely into licentious songs and destroys itself. Taste, filled with gluttony and much wine, corrupts the soul toward drunkenness and debauchery. Smell, loosed upon the elaborate perfumes of youths, has bound the soul together with itself. Thus, then, the soul, like a virgin, is captured by foolish handmaidens, the senses, and betrayed to the sin of licentiousness. For sin, having dulled all the senses, enters stealthily like a thief into the treasury of the heart; then, having entered, it strips the whole, plundering the store of chastity. That blessed woman, therefore, safeguarded her gaze, her bearing, her step, her hearing, her sight, her smell, her taste, her touch.

And truly, according to the wisdom that says, she was a closed garden, a sealed spring. For the blessed woman was like a garden that no one could plunder, producing the fragrances of chastity, and she was like a spring sealed by faith, from which none of the disorderly could draw the beauty of chastity. Two elders of the people, who seemed to govern the flock, conceived a desire for her, and each, burning with the flame of desire, was ashamed to reveal to the other the hidden fire of his heart. And on one of the days, each of them went secretly, apart from his companion, to spy on Susanna; and having found each other and questioned one another, they confessed to each other the reason for which they were present. Then, having formed a partnership in the act of sin, they made a thorough investigation of wickedness and watched for an opportunity to catch her alone. So it happened on one of the days that, as was her custom, Susanna entered her husband’s garden to bathe because of the heat; and when she had sent away her maidservants to fetch cleansing oil, the elders suddenly rushed upon her like wolves seizing a lamb, wanting to tear her apart with the sting of licentiousness.

And Susanna was alone between the two lions, and there was no one to help—no maidservant, no slave, no relative, no friend, no neighbor—except only God watching from heaven, who could have prevented it but allowed the struggle to take place in order to expose hidden intentions, and to make public both Susanna’s chastity and the elders’ licentiousness, and at the same time to display to women the greatest lesson in Susanna’s virtuous contest. It was a great battle, a fierce struggle lay before Susanna, greater than that of Joseph. For he, being a man, fought with one woman; but she, being a woman, wrestled with two men. It was a vast and delightful spectacle: a woman boxing with two men. And what is marvelous, if you hear where the arena was opened: in a garden, where the serpent deceived Eve. So when the struggle was ready, the heavens opened, the trumpet sounded, the contest was prepared, the umpire from heaven watched the struggle, and the host of angels leaned over to watch. The serpent was with the lawless ones, but faith was with the chaste woman. Great was the concern on both sides for victory: for the elders, not to be defeated by a woman; for Susanna, not to lose her chastity. For them, the demons prepared the rewards of victory; for Susanna, angels prepared the prizes of chastity. The lawless men seize Susanna. And first they wrestled with her through words, saying: We are elders of the people, the law has been entrusted to us, we have received authority to bind and loose.

There is no spy here. Be with us, for we desire you. But if you are unwilling, we will bear false witness against you, that a young man was with you, and that for this reason you sent the maids away from you. And see how many things were constraining Susanna: false accusation of unchastity, fear of death, condemnation before so great a people, hatred of her husband, hatred of her relatives, grief of her household, and, in a word, the ruin of the whole house. But none of these things was able to overcome the reason of the chaste woman, for the hope of her heart was in God. Groaning, then, she said: I am in straits on every side; for if I do it, death is mine; if I do not do it, I will not escape your hands. It is preferable to me, not having done it, to fall into your hands, than to sin before the Lord. Alas, those whom I thought were shepherds, I see are wolves; those whom I thought were harbors for the storm-tossed, these have become a shipwreck. You will not defile my chastity; I will not shame my parents; I will not dishonor my family; I will not grieve my husband; I will not dissolve my union with him through disorderly intercourse with you. I choose a lawless death over a disorderly bedchamber. My husband is present to me, not by the presence of his body, but by the disposition of his soul, and I carry the characters of my parents with me. Fear the God who sees; be ashamed before the angels who are present; consider what you are; know the law you read, which says: You shall not desire the wife of your neighbor. Having said these things, she cried out, summoning witnesses of their disorder; and the two elders also cried out.

Susanna’s servants and maids ran in; they saw the two elders with her. When the elders spoke the words against Susanna, the servants were greatly ashamed, because such a word had never been spoken about Susanna. On the next day there was a very great assembly; for it was still the decisive struggle, the victory for the crown. The whole people gathered—men, women, infants; again the theater was assembled. The people below did not know what they were watching; but the angels in heaven recognized the matter. The elders came, full of lawlessness; they summoned Susanna, as they thought, to shame and death; but as the righteous judge had predetermined, to life and eternal glory. And they said to the people: “Send for Susanna, daughter of Chelkias.” And they sent. She came, and her parents, and her husband, and her children. And Susanna came as one who must die for chastity, with great reverence, groaning, distressed—not because she was about to die, but because she was leaving a bad name to her parents, because she was about to leave reproach upon her family; for she had no witness of what had happened in the garden. Many were weeping for her—friends, relatives, parents, neighbors; her husband mourned, her household lamented; and she herself, full of grief, gloomy, weeping, distressed, stood in the midst with great humility of heart. The spectacle was public—of God, of angels, of men. The two elders rose up, wolves in the guise of shepherds.

They laid their hands upon her, and among them the slanderous serpent spoke. What did it speak? "As we were walking yesterday in the garden alone, this woman entered and dismissed her maids, and a young man who had been hidden came to her and lay down with her. We, being in a corner of the garden and seeing the lawlessness taking place, ran toward them. We were not able to restrain him, because he was stronger than we, and he opened the doors and fled. But we seized her and asked who the young man was, and she refused to tell us. This we testify." And the assembly believed them, as elders of the people and judges, and condemned her to die. And Susanna was led away to death, and there was no avenger of the truth, nor witness, except God alone. And He allowed what was happening to take place, so that the action of both might be fully revealed: the wickedness of lawlessness and slander on the part of the transgressors, and the steadfastness of chastity unto death on the part of the blessed Susanna. Do you see how long God abandons? He abandons them as gold in a crucible, testing the righteous in trials, just as in the case of Abraham.

hidden with her. Isaac was being led away to be a burnt offering; the altar had been built, the wood laid upon it, and the sheep was nowhere to be found. The father took the knife, and still no sheep; he rushed to slaughter, and then God with his voice reined in his hand. I have said these things so that each of you, when tempted, even if brought near to death, may not despair of God's assistance, but await it until the end. So Susanna was being led away to die; there was no one to help. When, therefore, she saw that human assistance was not forthcoming, she ran in her mind to the faithful witness in heaven, to the sleepless eye, and said aloud: "Eternal God, knower of hidden things, who knows all things before their generation, you know that they bear false witness against me; and behold, I die having done nothing of which they have maliciously accused me." And he who said, "While you are still speaking, I am present," heard her. And as she was being led away to perish, God roused the spirit of a young boy named Daniel. And he cried out with a loud voice: "I am innocent of this woman's blood." The whole people turned back and said: "What is this word that you have spoken?" And he, standing in their midst, said: "Are you so foolish, sons of Israel, that without examining, without ascertaining the truth, you have condemned a daughter of Israel? Return to the court; for these have borne false witness against her." And the whole people returned with haste. And Daniel said: "Separate them from one another." And he questioned one, saying: "You, old in evil days, now your sins, which you have been committing, have come to light.

Tell me then, under which tree did you see them conversing with each other? He said: Under a rope-grass. And Daniel said: You have rightly lied against your own head; for the angel of God, holding a sword, is about to split you in two. And having removed him, he calls the other and says: Seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty deceived you, and desire of the eyes perverted your heart. Tell me then, under which tree did you see them conversing? He said: Under an ilex. And Daniel said to him: You too have rightly lied against your own head; for the angel of God, holding a broadsword, is about to saw you in two. And the whole people cried out with a loud voice, saying: Blessed is the Lord who saves all who hope in him. And on that day righteous blood was saved. And what was said by David in the person of Susanna was fulfilled: But your right hand took hold of me; but they sought my life in vain, the lawless elders; they will go down into the lowest parts of the earth; they will be delivered into the hand of the broadsword; for the angel of God, holding the broadsword, is about to tear them apart; they will be portions for foxes. But the king will rejoice in God; the husband of Susanna. Everyone who swears by him will be praised, that is, everyone who believes in him; because the mouth of those speaking unjustly has been stopped; the unjust mouths of the lawless elders.

Then the grief of her parents turned into joy; the husband rejoiced, glorifying God; the relatives were glad; the neighbors were cheerful; her whole household was delighted, and in short it was a universal festival of God, of angels, of humans. Did you see in a woman’s body a manly soul? Did you see a woman’s chastity, whose memory remains immortal with victory? She was glorified by humans, magnified by angels, crowned by God. Emulate her, women, so that you too may be deemed worthy of the same honor from God in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom are glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.