First Reading - Numbers 21:4-9
Gospel - John 8:21-30
The people have suffered much during this pandemic from the lose of their family members to the scarcity of basic needs. Even till now, people are looking for alleviation from such unpleasant situations. The readings of the mass instills hope in the cross of Christ. We also need to believe in the victory of the Cross of Christ.
The first reading, taken from the book of Numbers, reminds us about the sins of murmuring and distrust of the people of Israel. The people were impatient seeing the tragedies of the scarcity of food and water in the wilderness. Consequently they murmured against God and Moses. God sent the fiery serpents among the people. It was a kind of medicinal punishment which made the people realise their sins and stirred them to reconcile themselves with God. Seeing their repentance, God asked Moses to make a bronze serpent and fix that on the standard. This bronze serpent brings healing or remedy for those bitten by the fiery serpents. (Why serpent? It's because the serpent was considered as the symbol of one of the Egyptian gods who had power to heal and cure. The crown of Pharoah had an icon of the serpent protruding from the crown, symbolising his divinity. The people of Israel had just left Egypt and were in wilderness, hence they were acquainted with the power of serpent. Above all, they were not yet fully acquainted with Yahweh, their God. Thus, we should take this into consideration.)
Through the teaching and healing ministry, Jesus tried to convince his listeners that he was the promised Messiah. But only a few of his followers acknowledged him as the Messiah. The pride and the prejudice of the scribes and the Pharisees prevented them from seeing anything Divine in Jesus. Hence, Jesus gave them the warning that he was going to the place where he had come from, and they would not be able to go there. They misunderstood Jesus’ statement about his going home to Heaven as planning suicide. So, Jesus gave the Jews the warning that they would die in their sins unless they believed in him as the saving Messiah and accepted his teaching. Then Jesus clarified how he was going to save those who believed in him by referring to the story of Moses’ bronze serpent, a symbol of God’s benevolent saving will, exercised toward His wayward, now repentant, children. Just as the complaining Israelites in the desert were healed and saved from the serpent bites by looking at the bronze serpent lifted on the pole, Jesus, too, would be lifted on a cross (refering to his death and resurrection) for the salvation and freedom from sin of all mankind. Jesus further explained that his cross would defeat sin and death and that he would give everlasting life to those who believed in him as the Messiah. Jesus declared his Divinity when he said, “I am He.
Dear friends, it's really unfortunate that the world is through crises. People are suffering and the sufferings of people sometimes are degrading their human dignity. In the midst of such topsy turvey situations, we have a ray of hope in the Cross of Christ that we will overcome them all; we need to remain firm in our faith.
The purpose of the coming of Christ was to give us hope that we are not lost but are still loved and cared by God. We have a hope in Christ. What's the demand of the Cross of Christ? It's faith. Jesus says in the gospel: "Anyone who believes in him will not be lost." Jesus invites us today to believe in him and his Cross and we will not be lost but we will overcome all situations and have life in him. Let's not lose hope at any situation of our lives because Christ has reassured us through his Cross. To remain strong in our hope, faith in Christ is the shield.
We need to learn to look at the cross because that divests us of our pride, arrogance, hatred, insensitivity, insincerity, and dispair, and cures us to become humble, forgiving, loving, sensitive and hopeful like Jesus. The bronze serpent healed the people bitten by the snake and Jesus on the cross continues to heal us from the bites of our sins. Let's learn to gaze at the cross with our prayers to be healed from our sinful inclinations.
May our hope be ever sustained by faith in the Cross of Christ.
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