The WORD in LENT - Fifth week, Tuesday
March 28, 2023: Numbers 21: 4-9; John 8:21-30
They thought they were finishing his story off. Little did they know they were giving rise to an all new history. The Lord was lifted and as he had said, he drew all to himself when he was lifted.
Today too, as always, the blood of some innocent children of God is being spilled for no reason, or for some petty selfcentredness, but it is not a signal of the end of the Reign of God. In stead, let the world beware that the Lord is being lifted up. And when the Lord is lifted up, he will definitely draw people to himself.
All that we need to do is like Jesus himself guarantee that we do not act as we like but according to the will of the One who had called us. As Jesus himself testified it was his doing the will of his Father that gave him the meaning of his life. As the Scripture points through St. Paul it is the obedience to the Father that placed Jesus above every being on earth and gave him the name that is above every name ( Phil 2: 8-11). Jesus was lifted high in his choice for the will of God.
When we decide to do the will of God, we shall be lifted too! But that does not mean, we will have a great time, appreciation and affirmation, celebrations and jubilations... it means that we will be denounced, tortured, and even killed. That is being lifted, a very painful process - but the only process that will render us true children of God, the only process that will guarantee authentic peace, the only process that will fill us with peace and make us instruments of that peace for the world.
Are we ready to look up to the Lord, lifted high, with a heart to let ourselves be drawn by him, and be lifted as he was?