Tuesday of the 5th Week of Lent
April 8, 2014 6:30am
As I understand it, when we
receive a flu vaccine, we actually receive a bit of the flu virus itself.
It is a killed portion of the
virus, but still a portion of the flu.
In that way, the curse becomes the
cure.
The virus becomes our source of strength
and health.
That is kind of what happens in
today’s first reading.
The Israelites in the desert are
complaining and turning their back on God.
And so, they are punished by
being bitten by poisonous serpents.
Then, they turn back to God and
God tells Moses to make a figure of one of these serpents and mount it on a
pole.
All who look at the figure of the
serpent on the pole will be healed.
So the curse becomes the cure.
The poisonous serpent becomes a
source of healing and health.
Jesus on the cross in effect calls
us to the same thing.
We are all human, imperfect, and
sinful.
Jesus dies on the cross for our
sins.
Our looking at Jesus on the cross
makes us aware of our sinfulness and of God’s great love for us.
And in that sense, the curse
becomes the cure once again.
The awareness of the curse of our
sins becomes our source of spiritual healing because it opens us to the love of
God which is so apparent in Jesus giving his life for us on the cross.
This is an excellent way for us to
understand what we are called to do during this season of Lent.
It is why the cross or crucifix
needs to be so central to our awareness and our faith.
