‘‘God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’ (John 3:17)’

Some years ago, while visiting our son who was studying in Madrid, we visited the Prado Museum. Our guide invited us to stand in front of Velazquez’ painting of the Crucifixion. Looking at a copy of the picture today reminds me of the questions asked in the First Week of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises: In the past, what response have I made to Christ? How do I respond to Christ now? What response should I make to Christ?

Today’s Gospel references the story of the ungrateful people in the desert and the saving bronze serpent on a pole. The promise of today’s Gospel is that ‘everyone who believes in him (God’s Son) may not perish but may have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)

Nicodemus, face to face with Jesus, and we, pondering today’s Gospel, are given a privileged opportunity as we sit or stand in front of Jesus on the Cross: perhaps holding the crucifix on our rosary, reverently gazing on the Cross in our local church during Eucharist or dwelling on the sculpture of the resurrected Christ above the altar in St Stephen’s Cathedral.

The prayer to the Trinity that we join in with our ‘Amen’ at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer (‘Through Him and with Him and in Him…’) can also take us to the Cross. This prayer references Romans 11:36 and Colossians 1:16-17. How might The Exaltation of the Holy Cross enter my prayer space today?