Lifting of Love

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today inspire reflection about the grace we receive when our sins are lifted up. Eileen Burke-Sullivan of Creighton University explains the role in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises of admission of the control sin has at times over our lives and our passions. The Israelites are described as grumbling and being very discontent with the  path of their travel away from Egypt to the Promised Land in the passage from the the Book of Numbers. The sin of moving away from trust in God brings death from serpent bites to the people. Their sin is represented by this serpent and healing from their transgressions occurs when the sin is made visible through lifting up on a standard. Friar Jude Winkler explains that the making of totem objects similar to the problem which needs attention is common in the Middle East. He recalls the biblical passage about the return of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 6)

which is adorned with tokens of the disasters which befell those who had captured it. The sin which the Gospel of John emphasizes is the rejection of Jesus as the Son of God. This rejection is placed before the Pharisees by Jesus in the text today wherein He refers to himself with the name of God, I AM. Frair Jude notes the choice of the evangelist Mark to put the declaration of Jesus being the Son of God in the mouth of the pagan Centurion at the foot of the cross where Jesus is lifted up (.Mark 15:39) The difficulty of Jewish thought to perceive a Divine Messiah dying on the instrument of Roman torture and public shame is sidestepped when the Love of this giving and forgiving establishes the depth to which the Trinitarian Love is given to heal humanity by this lifting up of God who is the Son. The concept of knowing and keeping the vision of our sin before us is helpful to the psalmist in Psalm 51 and is the advice of St Ignatius to be the path through which we seek and know the continuous Presence of the Spirit to call us to be healed with Love.