When you lift up the Son of Man, you will come to realize that I AM

Book of Numbers 21:4-9. 
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to by-pass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, 
the people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!" 
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. 
Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people, 
and the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover." 
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. 



Psalms 102(101):2-3.16-18.19-21. 
LORD, hear my prayer; 
let my cry come to you. 
Do not hide your face from me 
now that I am in distress. 
Turn your ear to me; 
when I call, answer me quickly. 

The nations shall revere your name, O LORD, 
and all the kings of the earth your glory, 
when the LORD has rebuilt Zion 
and appeared in his glory; 
when he has regarded the prayer of the destitute, 
and not despised their prayer. 

Let this be written for the generation to come, 
and let his future creatures praise the LORD: 
"The LORD looked down from his holy height, 
from heaven he beheld the earth, 
to hear the groaning of the prisoners, 
to release those doomed to die." 




Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8:21-30. 
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. 

“When you lift up the Son of Man, you will come to realize that I AM”

The person who truly venerates the Lord’s passion must look so hard at Jesus crucified with the eyes of his heart that he recognizes his own flesh in that of Jesus… No sick person can imagine himself refusing the triumph of the cross and there is no one who does not find help in Christ’s prayer. If this prayer benefited many of his torturers, how much more will it help those who turn to him!

By the fact that the divinity adopted our nature, because of which “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” (Jn 1:14) was any person excluded from his mercy unless he refused to believe? If we welcome him who assumed it and are regenerated by the Spirit who begot him, do we not have a nature that we share with Christ? In addition, who would not recognize their own weaknesses in him… who “took the form of a slave” (Phil 2:7)? …

This lifeless body that lay in the tomb but rose on the third day and ascended up above all the heavenly heights to the right hand of the Father’s majesty, this body is ours. If we walk in the way of his commandments and are not ashamed to profess all he did for our salvation in emptying himself in the flesh, then we also shall be lifted up to share in his glory. For what he announced will be radiantly fulfilled: “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my father in heaven.” (Mt 10:32)