A comment on John 3, 14-21: Fourth Sunday of Lent: 15th March 2015
In this fourth Sunday of Lent, we read a small part of John’s chapter three. This passage of John’s Gospel –and all the new Testament, as a matter of fact- can be understood only if we take into account the Hebrew Scriptures and traditions. Jesus and his disciples were Hebrews who believed that in Jesus’ humanity was incarnated and revealed the merciful love of God the Father. We, as Christian, walk on Jesus’ steps , praying the holy Spirit that He may make us understand that marvellous truth: that in Jesus Christ we meet the saving mercy of the Father.
Our meditation will follow three points:

1.- The snake hoisted on a pole
John tells us that Jesus (elevated on the Cross) is like the bronze serpent that Moses, on God’s command, hoisted on a pole, in order to heal the members of the People of Israel who were bitten by snakes. We can find this story in the book of Numbers, chapter 21. When the Israelites arrived at a certain place (lately bronze snakes were found there by researchers), tired of walking son much in quite difficult conditions, their patience was worn out, they got disappointed and started criticising bitterly God and his Prophet. To make things worse, snakes appeared biting de people and many died.
Before this fact, people acknowledged their wrong attitude, repented and asked Moses to intercede to God on their behalf. As an answer to his prayers, God commands Moses to make a bronze snake and to hoist it up on pole. Looking at that bronze serpent, people bitten by serpents would be healed… Some experts say that this is a tradition received from neigbour (pagan) people and that they adopted, somehow, against the pure faith of Israel.
The story, anyway, was useful to remember the sinful nature of Israel (once and again unfaithful to God) and the many ways God can use to be merciful to a people of sinners –even instruments apparently ridiculous or irrelevant.
As for me, this story reminds me of the many times that I am unfaithful to God. And it reminds me also of the small details, apparently irrelevant, that God uses today to help me out of my sins: a right word in the right time, an unexpected sickness, a piece of music… any small thing can help me to go back to the mercy of God.

2.- Jesus Christ, the “snake” hoisted for our salvation

John makes a reference to this old story, but he does not intend to remain on it. He wants to lead us further and make a big jump in its meaning. He says that in the same way God made use of those bronze images of the killing snakes to restore the wounded, God uses an instrument of death (the Cross) as a means to reveal his mercy and give Eternal Life. Out of sin He is able to produce grace, out of rebellion He is able to produce the saving obedience of Jesus Christ. That is why we look to the Cross of Jesus. In it we see the sign of our sin, but at the same time we see the sign of God’s Mercy and infinite love. In this Mercy and Love we find peace, healing, courage… salvation. There’s no sinful situation that ca not be healed, because, “where there was sin –says Saint Paul- there was the grace”. And God’s love has no limits.

3.- To believe is to live on the light

John says that whoever believes is already saved. Whoever does not believe is like a man that, before a lamp, closes his eyes and refuses to see, because he prefers to close himself in his own pride. The human tragedy is precisely that: sometimes we prefer to live in the darkness of our sin, of our lies, to open ourselves to the merciful power of God, who can transform our sin into an instrument of salvation.
Lent time is a big opportunity to enter into this dynamic: to acknowledge our sins and limits, to raise our eyes to Jesus Christ and to allow the light of truth, the truth of God, to illuminate our whole life. Lent time is the opportunity to allow God to enter our life, purify it and transform it in a life of grace and love.
Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma

A comment on John 2, 13-25:

Third Sunday of Lent, March 8th 2015
This third Sunday of Lent, and the other two that follow we leave out Mark and take up the gospel of John, which separating itself from the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke) present Jesus in Jerusalem right from chapter two, that we are reading today. Meditating on this reading I share here points:

1) To purify religion
The Temple of Jerusalem –and the City itself- were among the most sacred things for Jesus, a devout Jew, and his disciples. The Temple and the City were somehow like a “sacrament” of the marvellous God’s presence in the life of Israel and its inhabitants. From childhood, Jesus visited and loved them from all his heart, because in those holy places he could see the “imprints” of God’s passing in his people’s history. In the Temple he could find his the two great loves: his Father and his People. So he can say truly with the psalmist: “Zeal for your house will consume me”. And it is precisely this zeal that is causing in him such a rebellion against the state of corruption that religious leaders and merchants had introduced into its rites. Jesus plans to purify the Temple, knowing that God cannot be “trapped” in any institution, even the most sacred one. In fact, later on in the same gospel of John, Jesus will tell the Samaritan woman: “The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”.
Religious people can be tempted to manipulate or treat superficially holy rites and places. Certainly, we need rites and holy places to pray and celebrate, but, be careful, but don’t try to put them at the service of your interests, individual or collective ones. The disciples of Jesus must always be careful not to follow into the trap of abusing the treasure we have received, rather we must try to purify continuously our religious practices.

2) The sign of the body
When Jews asked him what kind of signs he was doing to justify the deep purification he was proposing, Jesus answered that the sign was his own body, which was to become the true “temple”, the place where God and humanity met “in spirt and truth”. The disciples’ faith has its centre, not in in a geographical place, but in the body of Jesus, o body that went through an extreme suffering and, at the end, experienced the triumph of God.
If in communion with the body of Christ, also our body (concrete expression of our spirit) becomes a place for meeting God: a body able to work, to suffer and to love in a concrete and tangible manner; a body that can go on its knees to adore; a body that bends itself to wash the feet of our neighbour; a body that serves the Poor and the needy; a body that sees, listens and embraces the suffering bodies of many suffering children of God. As Pope Francis says, the sick and the poor are the body of Christ. To serve them is equal to adore God. To abuse them is a blasphemy.

3) A weak faith
John tells us that, when people saw the signs Jesus was doing, many believed, but Jesus did not trust them. In the gospels we can see how much opposition and betrayal Jesus has to cope with, to the point that He ended up practically lonely and abandoned by everyone. Certainly, in the life of Jesus there were moments of enthusiasm, when people were following Him, thinking that He could be a king or a chief useful for their economic, political or religious interests. But Jesus did not allowed himself to be deceived by this superficial enthusiasm that could lead him astray from the mission the Father has entrusted to him. Jesus remained always confident, with the feet on the ground, free, open and faithful to the death, in spite of the inconsistency of those around him.
The temptation of an easy and superficial enthusiasm can affect us also, as individuals or as groups. Each one of us, our own community or the Church as a whole, can be satisfied with a superficial religiosity or even try to try methodological tricks to attract followers, even if they are not very serious ones… This is not the Jesus’ way. He is not too much worried about those who abandon easily nor does he confuse the superficial applause with an authentic faith; he knows, however, how to recognize a sincere faith, “incarnated” in the body of people’s suffering; a faith that transforms a life given out in adoration and service to the “body of Christ”, present alike in the Eucharist and in the Poor.
We pray that the Spirit of Jesus opens us to this sincere, concrete and consistent faith, in spite of our doubts and weaknesses.
F. Antonio Villarino
Roma