There is a book series by C.S. Lewis called the Chronicles of Narnia. The story centers around four children in London who discover a doorway into a mystical and magical land called Narnia. There they encounter all kinds of adventures, led by the King of Narnia, Aslan. With Aslan they become kings and queens, sharing in his power and authority. They have a castle, crowns, and best of all they have a relationship with Aslan. The whole story is an analogy for the Christian life. All of the characters, and the events of that series, correspond to the story of our salvation.
In Book Four, Prince Caspian, the story begins with the children suddenly transported from London back into Narnia. It has been a long time sine they were last there. They find themselves on a deserted island and soon begin to explore that strange place. They come upon an abandoned apple orchard, and a broken and collapsed wall. After more careful inspection, they realize that the wall is actually a huge foundation for what remains of a ruined castle. Immediately they are reminded of their own castle back when they were kings and queens in Narnia. Cair Paravel, they had called it. It was on an island much like this one. It is Peter who is the first one to realize that this castle is not simply like their own, but that it is actually Cair Paravel, long abandoned and in ruin.
What those children felt must have been what the people of Israel had experienced in the first reading we listen to this weekend. Because of the disobedience of the people, and their reluctance to listen to the warnings God sends them through the prophets over many years, God allows the unthinkable to happen:
Their enemies burnt the house of God [the Temple], tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon.
—2 Chronicles 36:19-20
It is, by far, the lowest point in the history of the nation of Israel. By the end of the reading, however, God announces His plan to restore that broken land. It is His initiative, His will to deliver them into freedom. He calls Cyrus, the King of Persia, to be His instrument in rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. Cyrus will even be called the anointed one of God (Isaiah 45:1). God takes the initiative and brings the people back home, appointing Cyrus to rebuild the fallen temple.
The world that we live in today is, in many ways, a broken world. For years now we have been trying to construct a world without God. More and more, in Europe, America and in many other places, we have developed a way of living that is very far from the moral and ethical demands of the Gospel. The more we build that world the more we realize how broken it has become. Perhaps even personally we have experienced what it is like to find our castles-our lives-in ruins. The history of salvation in the Christian faith can be summed up in our Gospel this weekend, where God takes the initiative and sends Christ to heal our broken world and rebuild the castle. Jesus says:
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
—John 3:14-16
He speaks to us of the cross: “… as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up”
In the desert, on their journey to the Promised Land, the people of Israel sinned against God and He sent serpents against them. Many became sick and some even died. Then God commanded Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on a pole, and all who looked at the image of the serpent were healed. They looked upon the source of their sickness, and placed their faith in the God who heals.
Our broken world is raised up again by Jesus’ humiliation on the cross. We look at that cross and we can see the effects of our own sin and brokenness. Uniting ourselves to Him in faith, however, we allow God to raise us up again and give us new life in Christ.
In the Catholic faith we have a sacrament for that salvation. It is called the Holy Eucharist. God instituted the Eucharist because He calls us to make a perfect sacrifice to Him, yet on account of our sin, none of us are capable of accomplishing that. We are all broken and in need of healing and we all experience the effects of sin. We are all too aware of how imperfect we are. Still, God calls us to offer a perfect sacrifice. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains beautifully how God has provided that perfect sacrifice for us in Christ:
The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father’s love for our salvation. By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God.
—CCC, #2100
In the Eucharist, at every Mass, we unite ourselves to the sacrifice of Christ in the bread and wine that becomes the body and the blood of Christ. We offer up to the Father that perfect sacrifice, and in so doing we give Him a sacrifice of ourselves that is good, pleasing and perfect (see Romans 12:1-2).
As we approach the sacred altar now, let us unite ourselves completely to Him, so that we may allow Him to rebuild our own fallen castles. We ask, in the Eucharist today, that God would continue to raise up our fallen world and make us His instruments in Christ.
