27 March 2012

27 March 2012



"But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?""


Even though the LORD is providing us with miraculous food and water we still complain as if we are left to starve.  It's true that we are surrounded by desert.  It is true that the journey is long. Yet will we really say "We are disgusted with this wretched food"?  When he gives us all we need.  We are not left to thirst when we drink the living water.  It isn't the mana from heaven or the living water which leave us worn out.  It is focusing on the desert instead of the one who leads us through it.


It is then that the ravages of the desert can truly get to us.  It is then the the serpents of sin and vice can bite us and cause death in our spirits.  Yet in the desert we see the shortcomings of our own resources and cry out to God.  If we cry out to him he is merciful.  If we pray to him we can be confident that he will hear us.  He loves us so much that he can't look away or hide his face when we're in trouble.


"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."


It may be that mounting a bronze serpant on a pole symbolically represents taking power over the serpants.  For a time the Israelites are protected from serpants and yet venomous serpants continue to afflict the world.  When Jesus becomes sin for us and is lifted up he takes power over sin and kills it in his own flesh for all times.  That is why we must look to him being lifted up and recognize in him the LORD of all.  We should see not just power over sin but the definitive victory of the LORD over sin for all times.  It is this victory alone which overcomes death.


"For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins."


Precisely in his filling this role in which he is lifted up on the cross he allows us to come to understand who he is.


"When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me."


He reveals the love he has for us.  Love so strong and constant can only be divine.  We can finally understand that he is God and that he has come forth from the Father.  Let us therefore not shun his gifts the greatest of which is the Eucharist.  We can trust that he will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.  Let us listen to the way he speaks and so come to believe.