Gospel
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.
What world do we belong to today?
Our homework today is to ask ourselves who do we believe in? Who do we see when we see Christ in the Crucifix? We should have a crucifix throughout our homes and on the rosary we. Carry with us. The rosary and crucifix are powerful weapons to help us fight off temptation and sin.
The Israelites in our first reading in Numbers looked upon the staff Moses held up to them and were healed.
When we look upon Christ crucified and finally see who he really is, we are also healed for we acknowledge he came to die for us sinners so we will be saved. He is the one who created everything including time. And he came into history and into time like the author of a book who writes himself into the story to be with his created characters. Jesus came to be with us.
He is the Son of God, and our redeemer, and the way. The only way.
Not who the world says he is for the world of people who deny him are lost as surely was the Pharisees.
So we must ask who is Jesus to us. Is he the focus of our life? The goal of our seeking. Is he the one that when we wake up we pray to and when we fall asleep we are praying to?
No one who does not put him first in their life can find true joy and peace. Nor can they find eternal life. But once we see him as the healer… the only one who can heal our hearts… once we surrender our life to him…it is then that the path is set and we see the world differently. We can let go of the anxieties over the things of this world. We are only concerned about our relationship with him. For everyone and all else is secondary.
Who do we see when we see Christ on the cross?
Deacon Tony Pynes 
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