The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate the mystery of the role of suffering as individuals and communities in our relationship with God.
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The reflection resonates with a visit, in 2015, to the Church of Gesù Nuovo in Naples where totems of the healing work of Dr. Giuseppe Moscati, a chief physician at the Naples Hospital for the Incurable, are displayed.
The reading from the Book of Numbers describes the Serpent Totem.
* [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 is the Father’s Ambassador and He 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
Andy Alexander, S.J. suggests that we might be still hoping for something hopeful to make this a fruitful Lent, and, not yet finding it, we might begin a bit of whining.
This is a wonderful opportunity on our Lenten journey - if we feel a complaining spirit compromising the graces of this journey - to turn to Jesus again and look at him for who he is for us. Realizing our need for a Savior, and beholding him as our Savior, can be the grace we need at this point in our journey. It can be the time to be freed from the biting crabbiness that can settle in and make its troubling presence felt in our heart. It can be a liberation from the darkness of judgments of others and the divisive spirit which is determined to take away our peace. It can fill us with more gratitude and simple joy to "re-discover" the "good news" of Jesus' love for us and his presence with us on this journey, warming our hearts to turn from ourselves to others in need of our compassion and mercy and faithful presence.4
Don Schwager quotes “Aided by Christ's grace,” by 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 Meditation on John 8:21-30 recalls that Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM” (John 8:28). We see that death is not his ultimate end. He will rise, and not only that, but he will raise us up with him. He will bring us into full union with the God who has loved us from before the dawn of creation.
Find a few moments this week to sit, stand, or kneel before a crucifix, whether it’s in a church or in your own prayer corner at home. Don’t worry about what to say. Just still your heart before Jesus and be there with him. Let him share with you his heartbreak and his overwhelming love. “Jesus, crucified Lord, help me to grasp more deeply everything that you revealed on your cross.”6
Friar Jude Winkler (https://soundcloud.com/user-863663632 ) has been experiencing technical problems with his reflections.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, notes that suffering has this strange and marvelous ability to pull us into oneness. Maybe we have seen it happen in our family, at the funeral of a loved one or some other communal tragedy. He thinks many of us felt it in the early days of the pandemic—before our dualistic politics got in the way—there was a sense that we were in it together.
Until we find the communal meaning and significance of the suffering of all life, we will continue to retreat into our individual, small worlds in our misguided quest for personal safety and sanity. A Crucified God is the dramatic symbol of the one suffering that God fully enters into with us—not just for us, as we were mostly taught to think, but in solidarity with us. The Good News is we do not have to hold that suffering alone. In fact, we cannot hold it alone. As we approach Easter, let us remember that we too can follow this path, actively joining God’s loving solidarity with all. What starts in God ends in God. All of reality is moving toward resurrection. This is the great hope of our tradition and one that is becoming more and more necessary for the world to hear.7
We are prompted by the Spirit to sit with Jesus and express gratitude for the people and events that have brought us healing on our Journey.
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