Friends,
in today’s Gospel Jesus prophesies his crucifixion and his Father’s
role in his coming death. What enabled the first Christians to hold up
the cross, to sing its praises, to wear it as a decoration is the fact
that God raised up and ratified precisely this crucified Jesus. "You
killed him, but God raised him up." Therefore, God was involved in this
terrible thing; God was there, working out his salvific purposes.
But
what does this mean? There have been numerous attempts throughout the
Christian centuries to name the salvific nature of the cross. Let me
offer just one take on it. It became clear to the first Christians that
somehow, on that terrible cross, sin had been dealt with. The curse of
sin had been removed, taken care of. On that terrible cross, Jesus
functioned as the "Lamb of God," sacrificed for sin.
Does
this mean God the Father is a cruel taskmaster, demanding a bloody
sacrifice so that his anger might be appeased? No, Jesus’ crucifixion
was the opening up of the
divine heart so that we could see that no sin of ours could finally
separate us from the love of God.
Reflect: How do this Gospel and reflection help you understand that
Jesus’ suffering was the supreme act of love from the Triune God?
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 252
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.
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.
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