The Promised LandReadings:Numbers 21:4b-9Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38Philippians 2:6-11John 3:13-17

Today’s feast embodies a great mystery. Like the people of Israel in the first reading, we are called to a long journey to the Promised Land of heaven.  Like them we can lose patience and fall into sin, sin that can literally kill us (Numbers 21:4-5).  Like them, our only hope for salvation is to cling to God’s merciful provision.Pope Benedict summed it up beautifully:

“The Gospel for this feast reminds us of the meaning of this great mystery: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that men might be saved (John 3:16). The Son of God became vulnerable, assuming the condition of a slave, obedient even to death, death on a cross (Phil 2:8).

By his Cross we are saved. The instrument of torture which, on Good Friday, manifested God’s judgment on the world, has become a source of life, pardon, mercy, a sign of reconciliation and peace. ‘In order to be healed from sin, gaze upon Christ crucified!’ said Saint Augustine.

By raising our eyes towards the Crucified one, we adore him who came to take upon himself the sin of the world and to give us eternal life. And the Church invites us proudly to lift up this glorious Cross so that the world can see the full extent of the love of the Crucified one for all, for us men. She invites us to give thanks to God because from a tree which brought death, life has burst out anew.

On this wood Jesus reveals to us his sovereign majesty, he reveals to us that he is exalted in glory. Yes, “Come, let us adore him!” In our midst is he who loved us even to giving his life for us, he who invites every human being to draw near to him with trust.”