Showing posts with label seraph serpents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seraph serpents. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Tuesday Fifth Week of Lent

Daily Readings for Lent
Today's readings: March 22, 2010
First ReadingNm 21:4-9;
Responsorial Psalm: 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21 ;
Gospel
Jn 8:12-20 ;

And here's an audio file and a video of a priest offering reflections.

First Reading:  Jn 8:21-30 ;
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,
to bypass the land of Edom.
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!”
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
“Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.”
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Responsorial Psalm  102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21;
R.        O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;           
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R.        O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R.        O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.”
R.        O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

Gospel   Jn 8:21-30
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said,
“He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commentary: Today's video reflection is terrific. Go listen to that.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sunday - Fourth Week of Lent

Today's readings: March 22, 2009
Reading One: 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23 ;
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 ;
Second Reading: Eph 2:4-10 ;
Gospel: Jn 3:14-21 ; go to this page (for all three sections listed above on one page) And here's an audio file; & reflections (video)

If you watch sports on TV, you will often see a fan holding up a sign the reads John 3:16, and we get that chapter and verse in today's Gospel. What is interesting, is that most folks have no idea what is mentioned in John 3:14, where Jesus mentions the story of Moses and the seraph serpents. Seraph refers to a type of poisonous snake, and has nothing to do with angels. Back in the days of roaming around and waiting for the promised land, the people of Israel were getting bitten by these poisonous snakes and dying. So Moses asked God for help, and God told Moses to build a bronze seraph serpent, mount it on a pole, and if anyone looked at it after being bitten by the poisonous snakes, they would not die. If you want to read the story Jesus is referring to in John 3:14, you can find it in Numbers, Chapter 21. And as you probably guessed, Jesus was pointing to how he would suffer a death on the cross.

One more comment about today's readings - I always liked John 3:16-17, because this is where Jesus tells us the answer to the all important question - why? God did all this, because He loves us.