The week begins with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The introduction to the Mass of the day quotes St Theodor the Studite: “With the cross we are freed from the restraint of the enemy, and we clutch on to the strength of salvation”. The first reading is from the Book of Numbers, in which the complaining people of God are plagued by fiery serpents, and the Lord provides a paradoxical remedy to the deathly challenge.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21:8-9)
