In our Gospel today we heard that "the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil."
And I wonder if people truly prefer the darkness or if they just feel stuck there? Because it seems like often people understand the gravity of their sin, of what their sin does to themselves and other people, but they feel stuck in it, like it is too bad or too much to be forgiven from.
In the moment, when someone is tempted by sin it might not seem too bad on the surface, just one time, just fulfilling a need, there might be many ways to justify sin, but in hindsight it not only hurts them but potentially destroys families and hurts many many people.
And for someone who recognizes the mistake they made, it might be too hard to confront the sin, they might feel like they are unforgivable by God.
This Gospel starts this Gospel by saying how "Jesus said to Nicodemus, 'just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.'"
If you remember, the people of Israel had fallen into sin and grumbling against God, so God sent Seraph serpents to punish them. After some time, He directed Moses to build an image of a serpent out of bronze and put it on the top of a pole, and then when the people who were bit by a serpent looked at it, they would be healed.
God made them confront their sin head on, He made them look at it, recognize the ugliness of it, but then He healed them of it and restored their life.
God asks us to do that too, and that is difficult when our pride gets in the way, but we have to look at Jesus lifted up on the cross and recognize that He has taken our sins, and He wants to free us from them and heal us. Our sin is ugly, but in the same way that the Israelites had to look upon the serpent, it is important to look at Jesus crucified and recognize He has suffered for our sins...
When I was down studying Spanish in Guatemala, at the town near Lake Atitlan where Fr. Stanley Rother was martyred, there was this crucifix they hand carved for sale, it was a way this church kept it’s doors open, they make lots of them each year, (you can see it pictured on the front of the bulletin.)
When I saw it, I was really disgusted by it, the hands and the feet are all disfigured, disproportionate, it was gross and difficult to look at, and I was like, there is no way I am going to buy that.
But then the priest there explained it to our group, Jesus takes on our sin, and it disfigures Him, because sin is not natural, it is gross and it hurts our bodies, but we need to see the reality of what it did to Jesus on the cross. The carver made Jesus look ugly on purpose to communicate what sin does to us.
Then it made sense and I did buy one, so (the picture of this) one is hanging in the dining room, and it helps me to remember that I have to confront my own sins, as difficult as it may be to look at them, but through it I am able to accept the loving mercy of God in my own life.
As a priest, I am worried that many people are afraid to recognize and accept this love of God. They think they are somehow special in a negative sense and God won't forgive them, but this Gospel says, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
God is not looking to condemn us. I worry many people accept that image of God, that He is looking to condemn us, looking for any small mistake to send us to eternal damnation.
But in fact it is the exact opposite, He is looking for any shred of evidence that we love Him and repent of our sins in order that He can show us His mercy.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."
See, to believe in God isn’t just to believe that He exists, I mean even the demons believe in the existence of God… to believe means to believe in what He says, everything He says and does, starting with believing that Jesus's life, death and resurrection was intended for the forgiveness of all of our sins. Not just some sins, or select sins, all of our sins.
In that second reading we heard, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God..."
Forgiveness is a gift of God, and all it takes to receive it is us confronting our sins. God had the Israleites look at their sin, and He still wants us to do that today, to confront our sin and then look to our savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one who heals us, then we can move forward, better than ever, living in the light of Christ.
The good news is that none of us are too far gone. It is really joyful news in fact, the joyful news of Laetare Sunday. God loves us so much that He gave His only Son for the forgiveness of our sins, we have only to accept it, to believe in His Word and accept His forgiveness as won for us on the cross.