Man naturally seeks the truth, but fallen man finds it difficult to know the truth. In philosophy, it is said that man only perceives the accidents, not the substance. In this context, ‘accidents’ means the physical properties of the thing we observe with our senses, e.g., the object’s color, height, weight, or temperature. The ‘substance’ is what the thing is, e.g., a human. We observe the accidents and reason to the substance from them. This lack of direct contact between our minds and the substance of external objects leaves a wide opening for mistakes in our reasoning process. This is true not just with trying to figure out what an object is, but also with our assessments of situations and people. As our Lord says in the Gospel, “You judge by appearances.” We see this play out in the initial ‘guilty’ verdict for Susanna in the First Reading.
We Need Divine Assistance
As we all know from personal experience, this limitation on how we come to know the truth can be very apparent and crippling at times. God provides special graces to enable us to come to the truth. These graces are two of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Knowledge (for created things) and Understanding (for things pertaining to the Faith). We see this gift being given to Daniel in the First Reading, “As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud […].” We also see reference to this in the Gospel, Jesus says that “I testify on my behalf and so does the Father who sent me.” This testimony implicitly includes a third person, the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit is the shared love between the Father and the Son.
Witnessing to Truth
Once we have found the truth, the necessity of witnessing it is incumbent upon us. Daniel saves the life of an innocent woman by his testimony. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” We are ultimately seeking not only to find a truth, but to encounter Truth Himself. Once we have found Him, by the aid of divine grace, we must be ready and willing to proclaim Him to others that He might be better known and loved.
[Readings: Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62; John 8:12-20]
