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. (Num 21:4-9)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040825.cfm
The story of the Bronze Serpent seems to contradict the commandment against graven images. Yet, Moses makes the bronze serpent as the Lord asks, and the people are healed. The early church used this story in its preaching of Christ Crucified.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Tuesday V, Lent
