Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
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March 31, 2020The readings from today’s Mass couldn’t be more appropriate for how we are all feeling. In the Old Testament reading we hear how frustrated with Moses and God the people of ancient Israel were.
They thought their God had brought them out to the desert to die. They had had enough, and what happens, they are attacked by serpents. Imagine how they felt at that moment. Just at the end of their rope. Had God abandoned them? Has God abandoned us?
It sure feels like that sometimes. But in the midst of the turmoil God had Moses take a bronze seraph (a snake) and fashion it to the top of his staff, like a cross. Any who has been attacked by the snakes only has to look at this staff and they will be healed.
This fits beautifully with the words of our Gospel today. Our Lord tells us “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.” He has not left us alone. In the midst of our fears and the isolation that this virus is bringing us, we have become the people of ancient Israel, frustrated and impatient, attacked from all sides, but all we have to do is look to the cross. It is in the cross that we get our strength and healing.
