Power is made Perfect in Weakness
Some of you may already know that the founder, in 1960, of Domino’s Pizza in the US, Mr Tom Monahgan, is a devout Catholic. In every one of his stores, he had placed on the wall a crucifix, visible for all to see, both staff and customers. He sold his business and established a Catholic University in South Florida – Ave Maria University. The cross on the wall was just a simple but profound reminder for everyone, in our secular environment, who our Saviour is and how He has redeemed the world. We need to be reminded of this, constantly.
The need to be reminded of the Mercy of God was no less true for the people of the OT as it is for us today. It was a great trial for the Israelites to have been led out of Egypt by Moses only to spend forty years wandering through the desert. The purpose of this journey was not only to train the people in the proper worship of God, but that they would learn to place all their trust in Him. However, despite the miracles shown to them, beginning with the 10 plagues in Egypt and being led free from the Egyptians, they constantly murmured against God’s servant, Moses. To do so was to murmur against God Himself. Moses was the mediator between God and His people; the one God spoke to ‘face to face’. Because they do this, God punishes them to bring them back from their sinfulness. He wants to lead them along the way of faith and complete trust in Him. On this occasion, God sent poisonous serpents among them and many of them died. They repent and return to Moses, asking him to pray to God for deliverance. The bronze serpent on the pole that God commanded Moses to make is rather enigmatic. There is evidence that people at that time attributed magical powers to such serpents. But the act of suspending one from a pole points to something else. They gather together and look upon the serpent and are healed. The Book of Wisdom (chapter 16) explains that this incident was to remind them of the oracles of God. They were quickly delivered “lest they should fall into deep forgetfulness and become unresponsive to (God’s) kindness.” Only the word of God heals the soul, not any magical powers or poultices.
Jesus draws upon this incident firstly to point towards the kind of death He will undergo. The Israelites who looked upon the bronze serpent suspended on the pole were healed of a physical poison and regained their physical health. They would all of course eventually die a natural death anyway. The word of God granted them this physical healing. But Jesus is the Word of God made Flesh who dwelt among us. Only He can give true life, eternal life. And He does this through the Power of the Cross: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Jesus is undoing the effects of sin which entered the world through the fall of Adam and Eve. They fell to pride, tempted by a serpent, thinking they could become like God. Jesus, who is the Son of God and True God, undid this fault through His humble obedience to His Father. Because of the Fall, we suffer shame. Originally, before the Fall, our first parents were naked but without shame. Jesus dies naked on a cross, enduring His passion and death, but despising the shame, as we have in the Letter to the Hebrews. In their pride, the Jews sought signs from God and the Greeks in their pride thought that an intellectual wisdom could save them. But Paul wrote “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Greeks.” Christ is the ultimate sign. Christ in His weakness on the Cross shows forth both the Power and the Wisdom of God. This is how God has freed us, undone the devasting effects of the Fall.
When we gaze upon the Cross, we enter and participate in a profound Wisdom that cannot be explained by a human logic. It is a mystery and a mystery which shines a light upon the pathway we are called to follow. In our suffering and humiliations, whatever they may be, may we embrace the cross, hold it tight within. It is not a means to hold in doubt or despair. Our Lady in her sufferings stood beneath the Cross of her crucified Son in her passion and sorrow. But she did not despair. “A heart that is frozen by despair cannot love, it cannot trust in Jesus”, wrote St Bernard. He wants hearts that are meek, lowly, like His own, not frozen from fear or pride. When we gaze upon a crucifix, whether in a church or in a department store, wherever, may it serve as a reminder for us of the profound mysteries of the Wisdom of God and take courage. Mother Teresa once said that before the Cross and the Holy Eucharist, remember that it is to Calvary we have come to, not a sitting room! The One who has gone before us, remains with us forever. God does not forget His Mercy.