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Homily of the Day

Title:	Bitterness: Is It Poisoning Your Life?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D
Date:	Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17

Today's reading from the Old Testament book of Numbers finds the poor old Israelites doing yet again what they seem to have done through the whole 40 years of their trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. They were complaining: the diet is boring, this barren landscape is ugly, and we're sick of manna.

So, the story says, God sent a plague of poisonous serpents which killed many of their number. But was it really the serpents who killed them? Wasn't it a poison that was already inside them, their abiding bitterness and discontent with life, their cavalier refusal to trust God, who had liberated them from Pharaoh?

Too many of us who call ourselves Christians are walking around with lethal quantities of poison inside us. And just as nature supplies almost infinite varieties of poisons, so do human hearts. Envies, jealousies, grievances cherished sometimes for decades and across generations, racial and ethnic resentments, ideological hatreds of every sort. And nowhere is this latter more visible than within — not between, but within — Christian churches.

All of that bitterness and discontent keeps the Lord at arm's length and leaves us without peace and without joy. There is only one remedy for it, and that is to give it all to the Lord and keep giving it and giving it to Him and not taking it back, until it is truly gone from our lives.

Then and only then will the peace of Christ for which we have always longed truly be ours.

Peace be with you this day and always.

One Bread, One Body

All Issues > Volume 20, Number 5

<< Tuesday, September 14, 2004 >>

Triumph of the Cross

Numbers 21:4-9
Philippians 2:6-11

Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38
John 3:13-17

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WHAT JESUS DID ON THE CROSS

Jesus “was known to be of human estate, and it was thus that He humbled Himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross!” —Philippians 2:7-8

The cross, a means of executing a criminal and a symbol of cruelty and shame, was changed by Jesus into the greatest symbol of God’s love and glory. Jesus effected this transformation by what He did on the cross. On the cross, Jesus:

shed His blood to redeem us, wash away our sins (Eph 1:7), and deliver us from a futile way of life (1 Pt 1:18-19),
made it possible for us to become children of God (Gal 6:15) and share in the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4),
made the most pure act of unconditional love and poured out infinite mercy,
humbled Himself and obeyed His Father (Phil 2:8),
forgave us and taught us to forgive others (see Lk 23:34),
drew all people to Himself (Jn 12:32),
gave us the opportunity to believe in Him so as to have eternal life (Jn 3:14-15),
made “peace through the blood of His cross” (Col 1:20),
gave us the Holy Spirit (see Jn 19:30), and
gave us Mary to be our mother (Jn 19:26-27).

During the few hours Jesus hung on the cross, He did more to transform the human race than has been or will be done in all the hours in the history of the world. Let us live to worship Jesus and tell as many people as possible about the triumph of His cross.

Prayer: Jesus, I am overwhelmed by Your infinite grace. I give my life totally to You.

Promise: “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 recovered.” —Nm 21:9

Praise: “We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world” (St. Francis of Assisi).