THE GAZE OF FAITH: FROM SERPENT TO SAVIOUR

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

THE GAZE OF FAITH: FROM SERPENT TO SAVIOUR

Fr. Innocent Igbokwe, OCD

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 78(77):1-2, 34-38; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17

Sunday 14th September 2025

The connection between the first reading and Gospel is one of the most powerful examples of typology in the Bible. In the desert, the Israelites grow impatient and “speak against God and against Moses.” Their sin leads to a deadly consequence: fiery serpents. The remedy God provides is strange and paradoxical. He doesn’t simply remove the serpents; He commands Moses to mount a bronze serpent on a pole, so that anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. The very symbol of their affliction becomes the instrument of their healing, the cross.

The Exaltation of the Cross is embedded in the core tradition that the Cross is the sign of salvation. Christianity is salvation, and thus, the Cross is central. It reminds us of the victory of Christ over shame and death. It reminds us of the love of Christ. In the Carmelite, the feast of exaltation is not just a sign of veneration but also a sign of imitation. Exaltation of the Cross means that the Cross is to be venerated and lived. The latter is extremely important. This veneration is not a distant admiration, but the active gaze of faith we see in the desert (Numbers 21:4-9), where looking upon the lifted serpent brought life. To live the Cross is to turn that same gaze toward the lifted Son of Man and walk in his path (John 3:14-15).

We live out what we venerate. The Cross becomes actually the way of life. The way of victory and love, intimacy and union, trials and suffering, detachment and sacrifices. What we venerate, we live out, and what we live out transforms us. In the Science of the Cross, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) narrated how she had her first encounter with the Cross in the simple resignation of a non-Catholic and was instantly converted and transformed. Her experience recalls the deep thoughts of St. John of the Cross that the Cross is a way of life, a way to mystical union with God. This path is nothing less than the path of Christ himself, the great hymn of kenosis described in Philippians. It is the path of self-emptying, where in becoming “obedient to death, even death on a cross,” Christ shows us that the way down is the only way up to union with the Father (Philippians 2:6-11). The Cross is a way of becoming like God.

This feast is a reminder that the Cross has a dual revelation—a sign of victory and humiliation, love and suffering, defeat and triumph, humiliation and exaltation, annihilation and fulfilment in God’s love. This duality is the very rhythm of salvation history. As Psalm 78 recounts, our own history is a constant tension between our faithless, forgetful hearts and God’s ever-present, pursuing mercy (Psalm 78:34-38). The Cross is where this tension is resolved. In Christ’s humiliation, God’s love triumphs over our suffering; in his apparent defeat, God’s final victory is won.

In his book, The Dark Night, St. John of the Cross sees the Cross as the place of “night,” through which the soul encounters the light of God’s love. This night is the stripping away of all attachments, consolations, and self-will. This night is perceived as the “death of the old self” so that new life may be born. Exaltation of the Cross is a reminder of this duality embedded in the Cross.

The Cross has a season. If you have a difficult situation today, it will pass. Always remember that the Cross has a season. More so, the Cross has a Value. There is a crown in the Cross. Every Cross has a crown. When you find your cross, you find your value. This is the paradox of the bronze serpent; the Israelites found their healing not by looking away from their pain, but by looking directly at the symbol of it, lifted up in obedience to God. And, the Cross is everywhere. Wherever human beings exist, there is the Cross. The Cross can be found in families, religious communities, churches, schools, markets, and offices. It fortifies us, and it purifies, bringing out the best in us, because it unites us with the best of God.