Lifted Up

 

Has your mother ever said to you that when you’re sleeping that you look like an angel? I’m sure she has. When I look at our grandchildren, I think the same thing … when they are sleeping. As grandparents, we love looking at our grandchildren when they are sleeping because it makes us feel so peaceful.

How do you feel looking at snakes? Does that make you feel as peaceful? Looking at snakes does not make me feel peaceful.

I say that because our first reading tells us that people who were sick and looked at the snake on a pole were healed. In our gospel, Jesus says, “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.”

Did you know that doctors use serpents on a pole as a symbol of healing? Did you know that people who look at Jesus on a cross feel great peace?

When I look at Jesus on the cross, it reminds me that he has healed me of all my sins. When I look at Jesus on the cross, I feel great peace.

If you have a cross in your room, I hope you look at it and feel a great sense of peace. If you don’t have one, maybe your parents will get you one. And then, after they look at you and feel peaceful, they will look at that cross and feel an even greater sense of peace.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.