Sunday Meditation: The Son of Man Lifted Up

This week’s Gospel takes a turn from where to meet God (the desert, the mountain, the temple) to preparing us for the crucifixion and Holy Week events.  Today we have the famous conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, the elder Pharisee at the Temple.  The Gospel passage comes in mid conversation, but it would behoove you to read the previous thirteen lines of John, Chapter 3.  Here is only the Gospel reading.

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who 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 might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the verdict,

that the light came into the world,

but people preferred darkness to light,

because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light

and does not come toward the light,

so that his works might not be exposed.

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

~Jn 3:14-21

This week, Bishop Barron has the best homily. 

 

In listening to Bishop Barron, it dawned on me why we Catholics put a crucifix up in the sanctuary of every church, and why we put crucifixes in our homes.  I remember a Protestant woman asking this once.  She said Protestants emphasize the Resurrection, and so the cross should not have the corpus on it.  I responded that the crucifixion shows our redemption and the love Christ showed for us, and that is true.  In the future I think I should add to this analogy that Christ makes Himself, that is, just as the bronze serpent was raised in desert that saved the Jews, Christ raised on the cross saves us!

Meditation: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”