In today’s First Reading there is the great, “Now you see ‘em, now you don’t story. Serpents are everywhere biting the complainers of Israel. Moses takes their infirmities and fears to the Divine Complaint Department. Problem resolved by an iron-clad replica of a saving-serpent. The wandering Jews will complain again, but for them, they kept wandering and wondering.
Please ponder slowly today’s Second Reading. The Divine Majesty has become a Servant, not a serpent, but has come for the same salvific purpose.
In today’s Gospel this, “Flesh-Clad Servant,” speaks to Nicodemus and to us about Who He eternally was, is, and will be. “What will it take for Me to convince you instead of condemning?” That “Flesh-Clad” Cross when planted in the sin-clad earth made a definitive statement about Who this mysterious God is and wants us to know who we are! We remember so we are reminders of whom God exaltedly claims we are!
The Cross is raised up so as to be planted, like a seed whose fruit is the freedom from trying to save ourselves. The exalting of the Cross is the exaltation of our humanity! It takes the exalted Cross to raise our eyes up from the selfish-self, from our oppressed-depressed complaining-person. We are raised to Eternal Life because the Creator continued the creational narrative by raising the Beloved Son to save us all, not just from eternal hell and damnation, but from our own punishment for having been bitten by the serpent of our own selfish sins. Look up! What God said through the articulation of the Cross then, Jesus continues saying from His Royal Throne of the Raised Cross, “I have come that you may have life!”
Rev. Larry Gillick, SJ
I entered the Society of Jesus in 1960, after graduating from Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attending St. Norbert College for two years. I was ordained in 1972 after completing theological studies at the Toronto School of Theology, Regis College. I presently minister in the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Creighton and give retreats.
I enjoy sharing thoughts on the Daily Reflections. It is a chance to share with a wide variety of people in the Christian community experiences of prayer and life which have been given to me. It is a bit like being in more places than just here. We actually get out there without having to pay airlines to do it. The word of God is alive and well.
