31 March 2020

When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he.

FIRST READING 
(Numbers 21.4-9)

4 From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea,
to go around the land of Edom;
but the people became impatient on the way.
5 The people spoke against God and against Moses,
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people,
and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.
7 The people came to Moses and said,
“We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you;
pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people.
8 And the Lord said to Moses,
“Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole;
and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole;
and whenever a serpent bit someone,
that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM 
(Psalm 102.1-2, 15-17, 18-20) 

(R.1)
Response: O Lord, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.

1 Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry come to you.
2 Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
answer me speedily in the day when I call. 

15 The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth your glory.
16 For the Lord will build up Zion;
he will appear in his glory.
17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
and will not despise their prayer. 

18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
19 that he looked down from his holy height,
from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die. 

GOSPEL 
(John 8.21-30)

21 Jesus said to the people,
“I am going away, and you will search for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going, you cannot come.”
22 Then the Jews said,
“Is he going to kill himself?
Is that what he means by saying,
‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”
23 Jesus said to them,
“You are from below, I am from above;
you are of this world, I am not of this world.
24 I told you that you would die in your sins,
for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”
25 They said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them,
“Why do I speak to you at all?
26 I have much to say about you and much to condemn;
but the one who sent me is true,
and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 
27 They did not understand
that he was speaking to them about the Father.
28 So Jesus said,
“When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I am he,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.
29 And the one who sent me is with me;
he has not left me alone,
for I always do what is pleasing to him.”
30 As Jesus was saying these things, many believed in him.