So must the Son of Man be lifted up
14 SEPTEMBER (Jn 3,13-17)
Until Jesus will remain lifted up on the Cross among the nations, the sun of the love of the Father will always shine for all of humanity. Our life is from the faith. The Crucified is the true sacrament of our rebirth and regeneration. It is in Him, with Him and through Him that we pass from death to life. Who looks with faith at Him, the Crucifix, fulfills his Easter from the slavery of sin to the freedom of the children of God. He passes from the non-humanity, inhumanity, to his true humanity. In Him we become real men.
The true hope of man is in the Crucifix, it is from the Crucifix. The Christ lifted up on the cross is the spring and source of all life. It is from Him, from His pierced side on the cross that gushes for us the water that transforms our spiritual desert in a garden full of every fruit of salvation and redemption. The Gospel of John on several occasions proclaims this infallible truth. He is life. We are death.
He said to them again, “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” (Jn 8,21-29).
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honour whoever serves me. “I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die. So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light.” After he had said this, Jesus left and hid from them (Jn 12,23-36).
In the desert, the children of Israel were attacked by poisonous snakes against whose bite there was no remedy. God established way of life the faith in a bronze serpent. Who looked at it with faith, healed from the lethal bite. Who did not look at it, died.
No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Who looks at the Crucifix with faith, lives. Who does not look at him, remains in death. Without faith in Him there is no hope of life. The bite of the ancient serpent kills soul, spirit and body. That society which rejects the Crucifix is doomed to certain death.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us a glimpse of the true faith.