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First
Reading
Numbers 21:4b-9
1. When Moses holds up a serpent does it parallel Jesus being lifted up?
2. The snake was the curse and the cure. Can the things that are hardest in your life be the vehicles that bring you closest to God?
Second Reading
Philippians 2:6-11
1. Philippians says Jesus did not seek equality with God. Do you think people seek equality with God, even subconsciously? How are you with it?
2. Would a savior who did not undergo any pain attract people who do, by bringing them to painlesesness? How about one who knows suffering well by being present in it?
Gospel
John 3:13-17
1. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Would it make sense for God the Father require his Son’s crucifixion in order to pay a debt for sin, or better, for the Father and the Holy Spirit to come with Jesus and be with him every minute of his life and death?
2. . According to Pope Francis, can the suffering of all humanity be found reflected in the death of Jesus on the cross? Why would Christ take all this upon himself? Does it show how much God loves us?
We exalt the Cross of Jesus, because in it God’s love for humanity was fully revealed. That’s what the Gospel of John reminds us of in today’s liturgy: “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son” (John 3:16). The Father “gave” the Son to save us, and this resulted in the death of Jesus, and his death on the Cross. Why? Why was the Cross necessary?
Because of the gravity of the evil which enslaved us. The Cross of Jesus expresses both things: all the negative forces of evil, and all of the gentle omnipotence of God’s mercy. The Cross would seem to decree Christ’s failure, but in reality it signals His victory. On Calvary, those who mocked him said to him, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (cf. Mt 27:40). But the opposite was true: it was precisely because Jesus was the Son of God, that He was there, on the Cross, faithful to the end to the loving plan of the Father.
Angelus for Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Pope Francis, Sept 14, 2014
Anne Osdieck
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