Tuesday, Fifth Week of Lent

The early church saw in the lifting up of a bronze serpent on a standard in today’s first reading a symbol of the lifting up of Jesus on the cross. According to our first reading, those who looked upon the bronze serpent lived. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of the lifting up of the Son of Man, and elsewhere he says that those who look upon the Son of Man lifted up from the earth will live, will share in his own life. In these difficult days, we all need to look upon something or someone that will give us hope. The news coming to us through our various media channels is invariably bad and, after a while, it can easily leave us feeling very helpless and even a little hopeless. In such a scenario we need all the more to look upon what gives us hope and keeps us going. We can look upon the Lord at any time and in any place. We don’t have to come to church to look upon him. In the gospel reading, Jesus says, ‘he who sent me is with me’. Jesus was very aware that God his Father was always with him. Jesus, our risen Lord, is always with us, and, through him, God is always with us. We can each say with Jesus, ‘he who sent me is with me’. Some kind of religious image in our home can remind us in these days that the Lord is with us. Looking upon such as image, is one way of looking upon the Lord. Such a looking upon the Lord is always life giving for us, because the Lord is the Lord of life, who is always working to bring new life out of death. The Lord is always looking upon us and he calls out to us to look upon him, so that we may draw strength from the power of his risen presence.

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