Pope Francis Tuesday Homily

Pope’s Morning Homily: On the Mystery of Jesus, ‘Become Sin,’ Lifted Up for Our Healing

At Casa Santa Marta, Reflects on Parallel With Serpent Lifted Up by Moses to Save People of God

March 15, 2016ZENIT StaffPope's Morning Homily

Using the day’s readings from the Book of Numbers and the Gospel of St. John, Pope Francis’ homily today at the Casa Santa Marta reflected on the link between Jesus’ suffering on the cross and the serpents sent to the People of God as a punishment.
“The Lord said to Moses: ‘make a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.’ It’s a mystery: God doesn’t kill the serpents but leaves them alone. But if one of these (serpents) harms a person, look at that bronze serpent and he will be healed.  Lift up the serpent,” the Pope said, according to Vatican Radio.
The Pope noted that this verb, “lift up” is at the heart of the discussion between Christ and the Pharisees described in the reading from St. John. At a certain point, Jesus says: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realise that I AM.”
First of all, he explained, ‘I AM’ is also the name that God used to describe himself and gave to Moses for communicating with the people of Israel.  And, then there is that recurring expression: ‘Lift up the Son of Man…”

God’s annihilation 

“The serpent is a symbol of sin. The serpent that kills but also a serpent that saves. And this is the Mystery of Christ.  Paul, when speaking about this mystery, said the Jesus emptied himself, humiliated himself and annihilated himself in order to save us.  And (what’s) even stronger, ‘he became sin.  Using this symbol, he became a serpent. This is the prophetic message of today’s reading. The Son of Man, who like a serpent, ‘became sin,’ is raised up to save us.”
Pope Francis went on to explain that this is “the story of our redemption, this is the story of God’s love. If we want to know God’s love, let us look at the Cross, a man being tortured” a God, “emptied of his divinity,” “dirtied by sin.” But at the same time, he concluded, a God who through his self-annihilation, defeats for ever the true name of evil, that which the Book of Revelation calls the ancient serpent.
“Sin is the work of Satan and Jesus defeats Satan by “becoming sin” and from there he lifts up all of us. The Cross is not an ornament or a work of art with many precious stones as we see around us. The Cross is the Mystery of God’s annihilation for love.  And the serpent that makes a prophecy in the desert is salvation, it is raised up and whoever looks at it is healed.  And this is not done with a magic wand by a God who does these things: No! This is done through the suffering of the Son of Man, through the suffering of Jesus Christ.”