September 14, 2025; Numbers 21:4b-9; 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The journey of Israel through the desert to the Promised Land was not an easy one. Poisonous serpents entered their camp, and those who were bitten died. But today’s First Reading from the Book of Numbers tells us that God provided a way of healing for those who were bitten. He directed Moses to fashion a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole. Everyone who looked at that serpent would live. Now God’s method for healing in this story is important. Those who were bitten had to look at an image of the very thing that attacked them if they wanted to live. They had to look at what was evil so that they could be saved from what was evil.
This approach provides an important lesson for our own lives. When something attacks us, when our happiness is threatened, it is important that we do not deny what is happening. It is important that we don’t look away to something that is more comfortable and easier. Rather, the scripture says that we need to face the problem, the very evil, just as the Israelites had to look at the bronze serpent in the desert. And as we look at that problem or evil, we believe that God will show us a way towards healing and goodness.
When there is a problem in our family—having difficulty communicating with a son or daughter, having a relative we need to find the strength to forgive—it does us no good to simply go on as if everything was fine. Rather, we need to face what is wrong, believing that God will help us find a way of understanding and of reconciliation. As we move into our seventies and eighties, it does us no good to pretend that everything is the way it was always was, to imagine that we still have the strength and ability that we had in our forties. Rather we need to look directly at our growing fragility, believing that God will show us a way to remain relevant and joyful. As our society hardens, becoming ever more violent, as it becomes acceptable to belittle and attack those who think differently than we do, it does us no good to withdraw into a small circle of friends, ignoring the world around us. Rather, we need to face what is wrong, believing that God will give us the patience and the courage to stand for what we believe.
It is always tempting to look away from those parts of life that are ugly, but the Scriptures today say that we need to face them head on. We need to look at what is wrong and do so in hope, believing that the God who is opposed to all evil will deliver us from evil and show us the way to lead ourselves and others to healing and life.