Reading 1
Nm 21:4-9
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,
to bypass the land of Edom.
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!”
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
“Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.”
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Ps 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21
Responsorial PsalmR. (2)
O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.”
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Gospel
Jn 8:21-30
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said,
“He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
Meditation: Numbers 21:4-9
“Whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.” (Numbers 21:9)
How strange it must have been for the Israelites who had been bitten by a snake to be told to look upon a bronze serpent if they wanted to be healed! But it worked. The venom that most certainly would have killed them lost its power, and they were delivered. They had to look at the thing that caused their pain, gaze upon the consequence of their unbelief. In a sense, they had to confront their sin head-on, acknowledging its existence and its effects in their lives, if they wanted to be delivered from it.
Now fast-forward to the time of Jesus. He, too, was expressing a contradiction. He knew that he had to be lifted up on a cross in order for all of us to be set free from the sting of sin and death. He knew, too, that the very instrument of his death would become the source of our life. All we have to do is gaze on the cross, and we will be saved.
So spend some time today looking closely at the cross. See there the consequences of your sin—and the sins of everyone in all of history. See the One who took the consequences upon himself. See Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, willingly embracing the fate that should have been yours.
Keep looking. See on that cross the perfect definition of love. Jesus said that the greatest love is “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Let Jesus’ love for you—his personal, warm love for you—melt your heart. Let his compassion for you—his willingness to suffer for you—move you to offer him your life, your will, and your plans.
Now look around you. See your brothers and sisters who are also gazing on the cross. They have been redeemed just as you have. Their destiny is your destiny. Let their lives, their stories, their needs and hopes and dreams move your heart with love. You are not alone! Together with them, you can move mountains in this world. As one body, we can tell everyone else: “Look! Here on the cross! Here is the answer to all your needs!”
“All praise to you, Jesus, for your cross! May we all become signs of hope, mirroring your love and passion for souls!”
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