Tuesday, April 8 : Saint Maximus of Turin

Christ our Lord was nailed to the cross to set humankind free from the shipwreck of the world. Moses, in the Old Testament, set up a bronze serpent on a pole in the midst of those who were dying. He had enjoined the people, when they saw this sign, to look at it in order to be healed (Num 21,6f.). So powerful a remedy issued from it against the bite of the serpents that the wounded, looking towards the serpent on the cross, began to hope and at once regained their health. Our Lord did not fail to call this episode to mind in the Gospel when he said: «As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up» (Jn 3,14)… The serpent, then, is the first to be crucified, by Moses. This is only right as the devil was the first to sin in the sight of the Lord (Gn 3)… It was placed, very rightly, crosswise on a pole since man had been deceived by the subterfuge of the tree of desire and, from henceforth, is saved by a pole cut from another tree… After the serpent, it is man who is crucified in the Savior, not just to punish the guilty party, to be sure, but also to punish the crime. The first cross takes revenge on the serpent, the second on its venom…: the venom that its persuasion had insinuated into man is expelled and healed… This is what our Lord did through his human nature: he, the innocent one, suffers; in him, the disobedience initiated by the devil’s notorious deceit, is put to rights and, set free from his sin, man is set free from death. Since we have as our Lord, Jesus, who has freed us by his Passion, let us keep our eyes constantly fixed on him, let us always hope to find in this sign the remedy for our wounds. If the poison of avarice should spread within us, let us look at the cross and it will deliver us; if that scorpion, desire, should gnaw at us, let us pray earnestly to it and it will heal us; if the bites of our earthly thoughts should tear us, let us pray once more and we shall live. These are our souls’ spiritual serpents: it was to tread them underfoot that our Savior was crucified. He himself says to us: «Behold, I have given you the power to tread on serpents and scorpions… and nothing will harm you» (Lk 10,19).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team