Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 14, 2020
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
When I first read this passage, I was excited to reflect on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, but I was a bit confused about Jesus’ reference to the bronze serpent in the time of Moses in today’s gospel passage.
As it turns out, God’s people, while wandering in the desert between Egypt and Israel, were afflicted by poisonous serpents. The people repented from their sins and asked God to relieve them from the serpents. God told Moses to create a bronze serpent and to lift it up on his staff. From that time on, anyone bitten by a serpent in the desert could look at the bronze serpent and live (see the first reading for today, Numbers 21:4-9).
Jesus’ comparison to this event is a reference to his cross. When he says, “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” he is referring to being literally nailed to the cross and lifted up from the earth. This comparison is striking in two ways. First, the image of the serpent goes back even further than Moses. In Genesis, the serpent is the sign of the origin of human sinfulness. This signifies that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross reaches back to the very origin of our sin and conquers it. Second, the cross itself is like the bronze serpent in so far as the sign of the affliction becomes the source of its overcoming. The bronze serpent is a serpent like the ones killing the Israelites, but God ordained that it would be the thing that saved them. Likewise, the cross is a symbol of death (and of humanity’s rejection of Christ) but it becomes the source of our new life in Christ. No wonder we can lift up the cross with great joy! Today’s feast of “exaltation” makes sense! As Blessed Basil Moreau said: “Hail the cross, our only hope!”
With our eyes on the cross, we can ask ourselves: what else in our lives can God utterly transform and turn to his purposes?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we confess that we have done many things that we are ashamed of, which we would prefer be kept hidden in the dark. Yet we also need to remember that no sin of ours is greater than your love for us. So please grant us the courage to stop hiding and come out into the light of your forgiveness and mercy. Amen.
Saint of the Day
For centuries, the Church has gathered on this date to venerate the cross upon which Jesus died.
On this date in 320, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, St. Helen discovered the site where local Christians believed Jesus was crucified. Underneath this site of a pagan temple, she found three buried crosses—Jesus’ own, and the crosses of the two thieves executed beside him. How did Helen identify which cross was the one on which Jesus died? A sick woman was told to kiss each cross, and when she kissed the third cross, she was healed.
Helen also discovered the inscription that was placed on the cross above Jesus’ head and the nails that pierced his hands and feet. When she was certain she had found the true cross, it was lifted up for all to see and the gathered people responded in acclamation of praise.
The date of this discovery was remembered and used to dedicate churches that were later built over the places of Jesus’ death and burial. Pieces of the true cross were kept in a silver reliquary box in the church that was built over Jesus’ tomb. Early authors all agree that the relics were comprised of pieces of the true cross; the cross was not preserved in its entirety.
In the centuries that followed, conflicts overran the Holy Land multiple times, and invading forces claimed the relics as a prize. When Emperor Heraclius recovered the pieces of the cross in 629 after one incursion, he gathered the people on this date for a solemn liturgy to venerate the relics. When the pieces were lifted up for veneration, many sick were miraculously cured.
The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is one of the great feast days of the Orthodox Church. Pieces of the true cross are part of the reliquary collection in the Basilica, and brought out for veneration, especially on Good Friday. The reliquary also holds a piece of the rock of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, as well as pieces of his tomb.
On this feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, let us remember Jesus’ suffering and death and look to the cross for healing and life!