TUESDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT READINGS AND REFLECTION:
“WHEN YOU LIFT UP THE SON OF MAN, YOU WILL KNOW I AM HE”
(Jn 8:21-30).
TUESDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT
MASS READINGS
READING I
Num 21:4–9
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. 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? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”
In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray the Lord to take the serpents away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.” Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O Lord, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O Lord,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the Lord has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the Lord:
“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.”
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower; all who come to him will live for ever.
GOSPEL
Jn 8:21–30
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, “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. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
GOSPEL REFLECTION
So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am, and that I do nothing on my own,
Drawing on the day’s first Reading from the Book of Numbers, Pope Francis explained that “in the desert the Lord commanded Moses to make a serpent and to set on a pole and then ‘everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live’”.
What is the serpent?, the Pope asked. “The serpent is the sign for sin. We think of the Book of Genesis: it was the serpent that seduced Eve, that suggested that she sin”. And God commands [Moses] to lift up the serpent, that is sin, as a flag of victory. It is something that one “cannot understand well if one does not understand what Jesus said in the Gospel. Jesus says to the Jews: ‘When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me’”. Lifting up the symbol of their sin and transforming it into an instrument of salvation therefore represents the redemption which comes from Christ lifted up on the Cross.
- “Christianity,” the Pope continued, “is not a philosophical doctrine, it is not a programme of life that enables one to be well formed and to make peace. These are its consequences. Christianity is a person, a person lifted up on the Cross. A person who emptied himself to save us. He took on sin. And so just as in the desert sin was lifted up, here God made man was lifted up for us. And all of our sins were there”. Therefore, Pope Francis explained, “one cannot understand Christianity without understanding this profound humiliation of the Son of God, who humbled himself and made himself a servant unto death on the Cross. To serve”.
For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” … But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am …
Dear brethren in Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisees thrice: “you will die in your sin” because they persisted in their rejection of Jesus and considered themselves self-reliant. Jesus has openly declared that “I am he,” ” I say only what the Father taught me,” “the one who sent me is with me,” thereby revealing that he is God. Only those who believe in his divinity could be saved. It is necessary to believe in Christ to escape eternal death.
Jesus announced his Passion with veiled expressions but we know now that the definitive answer is the Exaltation of Jesus Christ in the Cross where He carried out the Father’s plan of saving mankind. St. German of Constantinople contemplates the Cross and Christ’s obedience:
- “Because Christ humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death and death on the Cross (cf. Phil 2, 8), the Cross becomes the wood of obedience, enlightens the mind, strengthens the heart and makes us partakers of the fruit of eternal life. The fruit of obedience makes the fruit of disobedience disappear. The sinful fruit caused being separated from God, estranged from the tree of life, and being subjected to the condemnatory sentence that says: “he will return to the land from which you were formed “(Gen 3:19). The fruit of obedience, on the other hand, provides familiarity with God, fulfilling these words of Christ: When I am lifted up high I will draw everyone to Me (Jn 12, 32). This promise is a very desirable truth.” (On the Adoration of the Cross).
Many people in our own days ask the same question: “‘Who are you?’… Let us then take advantage to say a profound act of faith:
- “Lord, I believe that you are the Son of God, intimately united with the Father who said ‘I AM WHO AM’. I firmly believe that you are “the Son of God made man… the Messiah we were expecting: … the Saviour of the world, the Master of our lives; … the Shepherd that guides men to their pastures in time, to their destinies beyond time… the joy of the world; … the image of the invisible God; …the way, the truth and the life; … the interior friend; … the One who knows us even from afar; … the One who can forgive us, console, cure, even raise from the dead; and … the One who will return, the judge of one and all, in the fullness of his glory and our eternal happiness” (Paul VI, General Audience, 11 December 1974).
Grant us almighty Father, we pray, that by looking at the Cross of your Son, we may seek what is divine, obediently fulfill your will like Christ, be healed from the poison of sin, and be lifted to You unto eternal life. Amen.
Stay safe and God bless! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo
VIDEO REFLECTION
TOPIC: DO YOU ALWAYS COMPLAIN WHEN THINGS DO NOT GO YOUR WAY?
In today’s first reading, we see the Israelites journeying through the desert towards the Promised Land. They were glad to escape slavery in Egypt but they were getting weary with the long journey. They wish they never left Egypt where food and water were plenty. Today, they complain about the manna, the food God gave them that fell on their laps six days a week. Today, in the gospel reading, Jesus tells his opponents, ““When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that ‘I Am Who I Am’ (v 28).
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