Have you ever been in a situation where you had to go against the grain, take a stand that was unpopular among your friends and peers? Perhaps your very vocation put you in such a position—not everyone welcomes the news that a loved one has decided to enter religious life.

TEACHERS SHOULD KNOW more than their students. I think most of us hope that the people who are training us in any capacity have more expertise than those whom they are mentoring. But we've probably all taken courses in which we found out that our teachers were posers, or we've held jobs in which our supervisors had less expertise than we did.

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

Traveling recently with a friend who was accompanied by a very difficult teenager, I felt a bit like Moses in the desert with his band of tired and frustrated followers. On the one hand, I wanted to be sympathetic and understanding to the needs and challenges of the teenager; on the other hand, I wanted to say to this young person, who had nothing nice to say to anyone about anything, “Enough already! Show some respect.”

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

Like last week the readings present a stark choice between faith and sin, life and death. Yet also like last week there is a note of hope. Christ’s “downward” movement into the world is necessary so that in dying for sin he is lifted up and lifts up.

It’s not always easy to face the things that hurt us or our loved ones. So why would we lift up the cross, honoring that which symbolizes pain and the death of Jesus?

Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected. In the wilderness God gave Israel the manna every day, and they had no need to worry about food and drink. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer