DAILY HOMILIES #serpents

Apart from the Gentile converts, a large number of those who embraced Christianity were Jews who believed that Jesus was truly the long-awaited Messiah, but those who didn’t believe felt threatened and sought ways to end the spread of Christianity among Jews. However, in their attempt to stop Jews from converting to Christianity in their numbers, the Jewish authorities suffered many setbacks. One of such setbacks was their lack of unity.

Just as a tree was the source of humanity's downfall in the Garden of Eden, a tree (the cross) was the object upon which Christ redeemed humanity. When Jesus carried the cross, he corrected the mistake of Adam. The tree, a symbol of death for Adam, has now become a symbol of life for humanity.

Just as the prophet Hosea calls on the House of Israel to repent and return back to God, we too are called to accept the difficult task of going out to call people to repentance. It is not easy to tell a person his mouth is smelling, he may hate you for it or attack you, yet, that is precisely what the mission is all about. Preaching that does not “offend” people – cause them to search inwards and change their lives is not preaching.