“Being lifted up”. We heard about that action and its healing power in both readings today. First, we heard about the chosen people who weren’t happy as they made their way to the Promised Land. The desert was hot and dry. Food and water were scarce. They had long forgotten how grateful they were when they were delivered from Egypt. And just when they thought it couldn’t get worse, poisonous snakes began to bite them. They pleaded with Moses (I bet they did!) who, once again, interceded by making a bronze serpent and mounting it on a pole. Whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the pole, they lived. It was a sign of God’s mercy and healing.
And in our gospel, we heard Jesus say:
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM.”
To lift up Jesus didn’t mean lifting him up like athletes raise their coaches on their shoulders. No, when they lifted up Jesus, they took him to a hill and nailed him to a cross.
Dwelling on the suffering Jesus endured on the cross out of love for us is still horrific to imagine. And yet, it is this cross that is prominent throughout all our life in Christ.
- We are gathered in this sacred space in the shadow of the cross.
- We begin our Christian lives at baptism by being marked with the sign of the cross.
- We hang crosses reverently in our homes to remind us that we are sanctified by the cross.
- We begin and end Mass with this powerful, mysterious, lifegiving sign.
- And at the end of our earthly lives, we will be marked for the last time with the sign of the cross.
As Holy Week approaches, it would be well to intentionally reflect on the cross, the most significant sign of God’s mercy and healing. Gazing upon it now:
- think of Jesus abandoned by his friends, humiliated and scorned by officials, beaten and stripped by ruthless guards,
- picture the rocky path and his barren feet that had to walk it bearing a heavy cross,
- hear the pounding of the nails and the jeering of the people,
- hear Jesus struggle to say: “I thirst”, “Behold your mother”, “Father, forgive them”, “It is finished.”
- Reflect on how he finished his death…with forgiveness, with love, with hope, with grace. He did all that for us.
Today, as we make the sign of the cross on ourselves, let us do so with renewed reverence and deep gratitude for the suffering and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
