05/04.2022

Jesus continued talking to Pharisees and others in the Temple. God told Moses that "I am" and Jesus tells his listeners that "He is". He tells them that they will die in their sins if they do not believe that he is God.

I can realise that he is saying this because I have lived in this world always knowing that Jesus the Son is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but what must it have been like for those listeners who knew this man as a carpenter from Galilee; uneducated, a poor man who had the temerity to stand in God's Temple and reprimand God's priests and scholars.

I can imagine the scene in the Temple but the raising up of the image of a serpent to cure snake-bite is a beyond me. The "raising up" does lead us to Jesus' own words "When you have lifted me up you will come to know" but did anyone there , including John, know that he was referring to the crucifixion. Why is it then that hearing these words many came to believe in him? What did they come to believe? 

Dear Lord that you are Father Son and Holy Spirit; that God is; is the centre  on which our faith is based. Let this faith increase together with the hope and charity we need to practise it. Let your ministers protect and increase their charges by sincere piety and selfless love. May Mary and all the saints pray for us especially those who are innocent and yet suffer in this world.