Tuesday - March 23, 2021
TODAY'S READINGS
March 23, 2021
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 252
Reading 1
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.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.”
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Verse before the Gospel
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;
all who come to him will live for ever.
Gospel
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.
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WHAT ARE YOU COMPLAINING
ABOUT?
In today's Gospel passage, Jesus makes it plainly clear that he is God. Ironically, some of the Jews to whom he was explaining himself did not get his point, despite hearing Jesus come right out and say, "I AM" -- which for the Jews meant "Yahweh", the name of God. They were deaf to the truth, because it was unexpected and/or unpleasant.
Are we deaf when a truth is difficult to accept? Yes, we all get hard of hearing sometimes.
Jesus gave the cure for the Jews' deafness: "When you lift up the Son of Man, you will realize that I AM."
He was referring to today's first reading, in which we hear about the Israelites' sin of continually complaining because they didn't like what God was doing. They were like bratty little kids who don't want to eat their vegetables, whining: "We don't like this boring food that you keep giving us. We'd rather be slaves in Egypt where we ate spice cakes!"
How foolishly we behave when we don't like what God is doing! How insane are the alternatives that we think are better!
The cure for the Israelites' stupidity was a big dose of appreciation for life. Death by venomous snakes was far worse than a boring diet of manna, so their prideful complaints became a humble request. And God responded by saving them through a miracle that foreshadowed Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
God could have driven out the snakes by a different method, but he took care of the people's need by requiring them to look upon their punishment. The bronze snake raised high for all to see reminded them of their sin and reinforced their humility.
Today, we have crucifixes raised high in our churches to remind us of our sins and to reinforce our humility. There, we see our salvation.
Complaints are a sign that we've forgotten who God is and how much he really cares. Hey, if Jesus went through all that torture and death on the cross for us, wouldn't he also do everything else that's good for us?
Our complaints indicate that we think we know better than God does about how to solve our problems. But he sees slavery in our so-called "better" plans. He saves us from our stupid ideas despite our whining!
We need to face our sins, look honestly at their venomous consequences, and nail them to the cross by acknowledging that Jesus died to heal us from these sins. Until then, we'll feel lost, confused, anxious, and abandoned. Only when we return to humility will we realize that Jesus has been with us the whole time, guiding us and helping us.
Meditate on a crucifix. Identify your current sins and imagine placing them on the cross. Then go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation or use the penance rite of Mass to make it really happen.
Today's Prayer
Lord, grant me the grace of sincere humility that I might recognize my weakness and my deep need for You. Amen.
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The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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