The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine our choices of paths that lead toward destruction or to healing.
Choose the path to healing
The reading from the Book of Numbers recalls the Bronze Serpent that a person would look at and live.
* [21:8] Everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover: in the Gospel of John this scene is regarded as a type for the crucifixion of Jesus (Jn 3:14–15).1
Psalm 102 is a prayer to the Eternal King for Help.
* [Psalm 102] A lament, one of the Penitential Psalms. The psalmist, experiencing psychological and bodily disintegration (Ps 102:4–12), cries out to God (Ps 102:1–3). In the Temple precincts where God has promised to be present, the psalmist recalls God’s venerable promises to save the poor (Ps 102:13–23). The final part (Ps 102:24–28) restates the original complaint and prayer, and emphasizes God’s eternity.2
In the Gospel of John, Jesus, the Father’s Ambassador, foretells His Death.
* [8:22] The Jews suspect that he is referring to his death. Johannine irony is apparent here; Jesus’ death will not be self-inflicted but destined by God. * [8:24, 28] I AM: an expression that late Jewish tradition understood as Yahweh’s own self-designation (Is 43:10); see note on Jn 4:26. Jesus is here placed on a par with Yahweh.3
George Butterfield tells a story to illustrate that complaining can cause a bitter root to take hold in our spirit.
It is deadly. Whether or not we have a valid complaint, the exercise of constant complaining is as deadly as those seraph serpents. May the Lord deliver us from it.4
Don Schwager quotes “Aided by Christ's grace,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"God the Father said: 'I sent you One who would seek you out, walk with you, and forgive you. So he had feet to walk with and hands to forgive with. Thus, when he ascended after his resurrection, he showed hands, side, and feet: hands with which he gave pardon to sinners; and side from which flowed the ransom of the redeemed.'" (excerpt from Sermon 16A,10)5
The Word Among Us March 23, 2021 proclaims the good news in today’s Gospel is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has taken away the sins of the world.
Jesus promised that when we lift him up on the cross, we’ll see how far he went in order to save us. So fix your eyes on Christ crucified today. Gaze upon him and see his love streaming out toward you. Let that love bring you from death into life. “Thank you, Jesus, for rescuing me from sin and death!”6
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the lack of gratitude among the Israelites in the account of the saraph (fire) serpents. The serpent symbol was removed from the Temple in the reforms of Hezekiah. Friar Jude connects Jesus' identification as the Son of Man to Daniel Chapter 7 and the Songs of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev, who describes the experience of one of the earliest Hebrew prophets, Amos.
While most of us are not yet prophets, we also know the presence of a great love, a love that includes the entire world. Awakened by that love, we too are aggrieved in the face of human oppression. A voice within us calls out, “This is wrong and cannot stand.” We yearn for a world in which all can flourish. Fueled by our own particular yearning, we occasionally entertain visions for how some small part of our world can be liberated into greater possibility.7
The prompting of the Spirit seeks to direct our response to difficult situations to bring healing amid disruption.
References
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