4th. Sunday of Lent (B)
(2 Chronicles
36:14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21)
As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Dear People of God, those words in our Gospel reading from
St John sound very strange to us today, so let’s briefly recall the event which
took place when Israel was being led through the desert from slavery in Egypt towards
freedom in the Promised Land.
The Israelites complained bitterly against the Lord and
against Moses over their hardships in the desert, and finally the Lord sent
venomous snakes which killed a considerable number of them. The people then repented and asked Moses to
intercede for them; whereupon, at the Lord’s command, Moses had a bronze symbol
of the snakes made, which was then lifted high up on a pole. Those who, having been bitten, acknowledged
their sin and besought God’s help, were told to look up at the bronze snake on
the pole and they would live. And so,
indeed, it happened: those who repented and did as the Lord commanded, on looking
up to the symbol of the snake high up on the pole, found themselves healed of
the effects of that deadly bite.
It must have seemed very mysterious to the People of Israel
when, later on, scrutinizing the Scriptures in order to better understand and
serve the Lord their God, they came upon that bizarre incident taken from the
history of their forebears’ journeying across the desert. It was, indeed, mysterious for them -- and unavoidably
so -- because the whole episode was laden with significance not only for the Israelites
themselves over the subsequent 1000 years or more, but even more particularly
for the whole future Christian people. In
the desert, a few hundred, perhaps even a few thousand, of the children of
Israel were saved by looking up at the bronze likeness of a serpent: but since
then, the memory of their experience has carried a salutary teaching recommending
the fruits of Jesus’ death to countless millions of Christian people throughout
the whole world.
The Lord sent the serpents to do their work among a sinful
people and then was able to turn that deadly instrument of His wrath into a
saving grace: look at the bronze serpent and you will be healed of your
wounds. For us, God the Father allowed
His only begotten Son, His Beloved, to be most cruelly tortured before being exhibited
on the Cross and left to suffer a slow and agonising death. Could He make any use of that most brutal,
degrading, and horrendous event? Could
He turn that to any good purpose?
The answer was provided when, three days later, Jesus rose
– in our flesh -- from the dead; for then His exposition on the Cross of
suffering was shown to have been but a prelude to His ultimate exaltation into heavenly
glory as the Saviour of humankind. Subsequently, those who -- by the Gift of the
Spirit -- would believe in Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God, given by His Father
to live among us and die for our sins, they too could -- as His disciples and
despite our human weakness and all the wiles of Satan -- be raised up from the
dead by that omnipotent power which the Father had used for Jesus. Yes, for all those who would love and believe
in Jesus and trust in God’s goodness and mercy, the Father could, would, and does use the Crucifixion of His
beloved Son for our salvation and His own glory.
Just go back in your mind to the original event in the
desert. Imagine the terror of those
bitten by the serpents: their fear as the poison began inexorably to work in
their bodies; why, even those who were not bitten must have been agonized to
see all this horror going on around them and hear the cries of those who were in
searing pain and staring death in the face.
It was such people, people like us but in such a situation, who were
told to look up at the bronze serpent. Trust the command! Stop your screaming, stop your panic, stop
your frantic attempts to somehow suck out the poison or cauterise the wound,
stop even your hugging and your sobbing! Stop all that panic, just get a hold of
yourselves, and do what the Lord says: Look at the bronze serpent!
People of God, the message is clear for us. If we are to look at the Crucifix and draw
life from the Lord of life shown hanging there, we must look in a truly serious
way. We cannot look in a merely notional
way: saying we believe but being otherwise indifferent and disinterested. We have to look with the eyes of people who
are deeply involved: people who are humbly aware of their own pride and
weakness, ignorance and wilfulness, greed and selfishness, and recognize it as a
potentially lethal poison flowing through their veins. Such people have not the slightest doubt of
their own need of salvation and are willing to commit themselves
completely -- their life, death, and destiny – to Jesus upon Whom they fix
their eyes in hope.
Our Lord on the Cross, People of God, is the icon of the Father’s love for us; but likewise, He is also the icon of the Father’s hatred of sin and of the Father’s determination to eradicate sin from His world by uprooting it from the hearts of all who would be His children in Jesus.
And in this regard we must recognize that the
signs of the times today are very similar to those of the times that brought-on
that great punishment by God of His people, of which we heard in the first
reading:
All the princes of Judah, the priests
and the people (Today we have to say, “All the faithless Christian peoples now non-practicing)
added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD’S (presence in their midst). Early
and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send His messengers to them,
for He had compassion on His people and His dwelling place. But
they mocked the messengers of God, despised His warnings, and scoffed at His
prophets, until the anger of the LORD against His people was so inflamed that
there was no remedy.
Is that happening in our days, dear People of God? Are modern ‘pseudo-believers’ allowed to
profess ‘faith-without-obedience’ before God with impunity? Today’s
non-believers do indeed say with modern arrogance and pride that, “There is no
God”; but then they must realize that they can no longer aspire to have any
share in those Christian hopes of eternal life, divine mercy, justice, and love,
saintly human fellowship and shared joy; indeed, they
find themselves no longer able trust in the saving and guiding presence of the
Holy Spirit in their lives.
For those of us who believe, however, for those who like
us, look with hope and love at the Crucified One, the Father has given us His
Son’s Holy Spirit -- that other Advocate and Comforter promised by Jesus -- to abide
with us in Mother Church, to be in all who are faithful and obedient, to guide
and sustain them, throughout their lives.
He has already placed us in our promised land, or
rather, in that garden, which is Mother Church, where the fruit of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil is given to us according to our measure,
together with the grace that enables us to use such knowledge for our greater
good. Of course, we know all too well
today that the Church -- not Mother Church -- but the
Church, our Church, made up of men and women still too prone to sin,
often messes up God’s work and plans, and for that we must ever be
dismayed, distressed, sorry and repentant; but we are never left to
ourselves in MOTHER Church, God’s Holy Spirit is ever with us there and He will
raise up from among our brethren, saints for His glory, and also -- of His
great mercy and goodness -- from among us, even from you and me, servants
for His saving purposes
Even when we were dead in our
transgressions, (God) brought us to life with Christ.
And now, living by the Spirit of Jesus Who is, henceforth,
our divine Guide, we have to allow ourselves to be led by Him -- not
constantly complaining as did the Israelites of old in the desert-- but
willingly and gratefully being led along the ways of Jesus through our share of the trials and tribulations of life on earth.
Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit Who is guiding Mother Church, and it
is by His grace, active in our lives, that we are enabled to appreciate her
sacraments and obey her teaching, as St. Paul said:
(God) raised us up with
Christ, and seated us with Him in the heavens in Christ Jesus; for by grace you
have been saved through faith, and this is not from you, it is the gift of God
(that is, the work of the Spirit, Who is Himself the very Gift of God’s own
Being).
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, Thy
Kingdom come, Thy will be done … that is what we pray, People of God, and that
is what is happening in us, to us and through us, because the Father is,
imperceptibly at times but always and irresistibly, bringing about His Kingdom
for His children, and we are being borne along the flood tide of His eternal
goodness, wisdom and power. On this
Laetare Sunday, therefore, let us indeed rejoice with great joy and deep gratitude,
with sure trust and calm confidence, that the Lord has so mercifully chosen us;
and let us humbly pray that we may always swim with that tide until it brings
us to our home shores:
Raised up and seated with Him
in the heavens in Christ Jesus.
