John 3:13-17

Numbers 21:4b-9

Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38

Philippians 2:6-11

John 3:13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

“No one has gone up to heaven

except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I am humbled by the immensity and depth of your love. You did not spare your own Son but sent him into the world to die for us and release us from the ancient curse of death. You love me with an eternal love. Help me return that same love.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Sin and Salvation: Today’s feast recalls both the discovery of the True Cross of Jesus by Saint Helena in A.D. 326 and the recovery of the relic of the Cross from the Persians in A.D. 628. These events are the occasion for today’s contemplation of the mystery of the Cross, the instrument of our redemption and salvation. The First Reading introduces us to the dynamic of sin and salvation. The people of Israel sinned by grumbling and complaining in the desert against God and Moses. For this, they were punished with fiery serpents, who bit some of the people. This punishment awakened the people to their sin and they confessed to Moses: “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you”. In response, Moses interceded for the people and prayed for them. The Lord had compassion on the people and provided them with a saving sign. If they were bitten by a serpent, they were to look to the bronze serpent mounted on a pole. If they did this, they would live. “The image is striking: they were forced to look upon an exalted representation of the consequences of their own sin and, by doing so, were saved from the full penalty themselves” (Prothro, The Bible and Reconciliation, 196).

2. The Symbol of the Bronze Serpent: The symbol of the bronze serpent looks to the past, but is also a foreshadowing of something greater in the future. The bronze serpent makes us think of the ancient serpent in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve listened to the lies of the serpent and, by eating the forbidden fruit, they were bitten, so to speak, by the ancient serpent. They brought the curse of death upon themselves and their children. When they were confronted by God about their sin, they mercifully received the promise of a Savior. God said that the serpent would continue to bite at their heel, but one day, one of their descendants would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). The bronze serpent also looks to the future. Jesus, in the Gospel, unlocks the mystery hidden for the ages: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Just as the symbol of death (the bronze serpent) became an instrument of life and healing, the instrument of Jesus’ death (the Cross) became an instrument of life and salvation. The bronze serpent contained no magical power; it was only a symbol. By looking at the bronze serpent, the people of God manifested their faith and trust in God and in his promise. In like manner, we look with faith upon the Crucified Christ. This delivers us from the full penalty of sin. “Yet in contemplating the cross, we too are gazing on an image of our sins’ consequences” (Prothro, The Bible and Reconciliation, 196-197).

3. Christ Crucified: With Saint Paul, we proclaim Christ crucified: Christ died and rose for me. The Cross cannot be a stumbling block for us; rather, it reveals the power of God to us. It reveals his love. “Centuries after Paul we see that in history it was the Cross that triumphed and not the wisdom that opposed it. The Crucified One is wisdom, for he truly shows who God is, that is, a force of love which went even as far as the Cross to save men and women. God uses ways and means that seem to us, at first sight, to be merely weakness. The Crucified One reveals on the one hand man's frailty and on the other, the true power of God, that is the free gift of love: this totally gratuitous love is true wisdom” (Benedict XVI, October 29, 2008). The wisdom of the Cross guides our actions since it teaches us the way of humility; the power of the Cross gives us strength since it introduces us into the weakness of renunciation; the blood of the Cross washes us clean since it is the instrument of our redemption. Today we embrace our daily cross and follow in the footsteps of the Crucified One.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you were lifted up on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and to reconcile us with the Father. You were innocent, yet condemned. You were sinless, yet bore our sins. Grant me a share in your suffering so that I may also share in your exaltation.

Living the Word of God: What do I see when I look upon the crucifix? God’s wrath? The effect of my sin? God’s love? Can I set aside time today or tomorrow to contemplate the crucifix and ask God to reveal the depth of his love to me?