Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
(Numbers 21:4-9; John 8:21-30)
Many Catholic children, even those in parochial schools,
do not attend mass on Sunday. If you
would ask them why, they say that they sometimes have a soccer game or go out
of town. Their parents, of course, are
not attending either. They may find
themselves one day like the Jews in today’s gospel unable to understand
Jesus. They may think that he suffered a
needless death that was tantamount to suicide.
We are probably mistaken if we think of the dialogue in
the gospel as an actual conversation. More likely it is the evangelist’s
rebuttal of the Jewish denial of Jesus as the Messiah. He uses ideas and phrases from Jesus but directs
himself to Jewish critics of Christianity a generation or two later. These Jews, the evangelist is saying, cannot
appreciate what Jesus said and much less did.
They think in worldly ways that Jesus was an imposter who claimed to be
God. They cannot accept that he spoke
and acted as God’s real representative. They also think that they did away with
Jesus on the cross. But the evangelist knows
that the crucifixion was the supreme sacrament of divine love. Because he did His will, the Father has raised
Jesus from death to glory.
Jesus’ sacrifice is memorialized in the mass, especially
on Sunday. It is not just a lesson in
recall but a re-enactment of the sacrifice for our advantage. Somehow we must draw both children and their
parents to this sacrament. Only in this
way will they transcend worldly ways to participate in Christ’s glory.
