4/12/11 SERPENT ON A STICK, CHRIST ON A CROSS

4/12/11 cblog SERPENT ON A STICK, CHRIST ON A CROSS; [personal comment: I personally have always associated the "serpent' with evil, given the serpent who tempts Eve in the garden of Eden, but here, apparently, the serpent has a positive connotation, and in the homily, the priests suggests it has a parallel to Christ on the Cross; interesting] incarn, 530p
fr. Eugene m: ""first reading..see israelites complained....god sends deadly snakes..they beg moses to spare them..god says put a serpent on a post..look at it..will be saved..u see a typ of christ, of cross..look at cross..then in john..expression..not define god but..remember when..said take off shoes..you're on holy ground..said who r u, Jesus answered "I am"..he is the one who exists in himself, no other source.says it twice..reminds ..."

Nm 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

R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to You

John 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."