Moses prayed and received the following order from the Lord: “Make a fiery serpent and put it on a standard. If anyone is bitten and looks at it, he shall live” (Ibid. 21, 8). Moses obeyed the order. The bronze serpent set upon the standard became salvation from death for anyone who was bitten by the serpents.
In the Book of Genesis the serpent was a symbol of the spirit of evil. But now, by a startling reversal, the bronze serpent lifted up in the desert is a figure of Christ lifted up on the Cross.
The feast of the Triumph of the Cross recalls to our minds, and in a certain sense makes present, the lifting up of Christ on the Cross. This feast is the lifting up of the saving Christ: whoever believes in the Crucified One has eternal life.
The lifting up of Christ on the Cross gives a beginning to the lifting up of humanity through the Cross. And the final measure of this lifting up is eternal life.
3. This Old Testament event is recalled in the central theme of John’s Gospel.
Why are the Cross and the Crucified One the doorway to eternal life?
Because in him – Christ crucified – is manifested to the full the love of God for the world, for man.
In the same conversation with Nicodemus Christ says: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved” (Io. 3, 16-17).
The salvific lifting up of the Son of God on the Cross has its eternal source in love. This is the love of the Father that sends the Son; he gives his Son for the salvation of the world. And at the same time it is the love of the Son who does not “judge” the world, but gives himself for the love of the Father and for the salvation of the world. Giving himself to the Father through the Sacrifice of the Cross, he gives himself at the same time to the world: to each person and to the whole of humanity.
The Cross contains in itself the mystery of salvation, because, in the Cross, Love is lifted up. This is the lifting up of Love to the supreme point in the history of the world: in the Cross Love is lifted up and the Cross is at the same time lifted up through Love. And from the height of the Cross, love comes down to us. Yes: “The Cross is the most profound condescension of God to man . . . The Cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most painful wounds of man’s existence” (Ioannis Pauli PP. II, Dives in Misericordia, 8).
Pope John Paul II
Solemn Celebration for the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross of Christ
September 9-20, 1984
