Healed by the Wound

Today’s readings.

We find today in the wilderness, the very thing that wounds Israel becomes, strangely, the instrument of their healing. God commands that a likeness of the affliction, a serpent, be lifted up, and those who look upon it in trust, live. The tradition lingers on this because it reveals something essential about how God heals. A good physician does not remain at a distance from the illness, nor does he simply patch the symptoms; rather, he works within them to restore health. 

So too with Christ. He does not save us by remaining distant from our woundedness, but by taking it on, bearing it, and transforming it from within. This is why the Gospel speaks of the Son of Man being “lifted up.” What appears to be defeat is the very locus where healing is made visible. Yet, the condition remains the same: we must look. Not glance, not avoid, but face what has wounded us and behold the one who bears it without being overcome by it. For us to be healed, we have to face what is actually wrong, to accept the form healing takes, to trust that God’s cure reaches deeper than our desire for relief. Lent is not just a season to alleviate symptoms, but to be made whole, and that begins by learning to look where we would rather turn away.

Today’s Practice – Prayer:

Take five minutes today to place before Christ something you tend to avoid—an area of sin, a recurring struggle, or a wound you prefer not to name. In prayer, hold it there and remain, asking for the grace to see it truthfully and to trust that Jesus, the divine physician, is already at work within it.