Please read the passage before the commentary.
In the desert the Israelites suffered from poisonous snakes. To heal them, Poses made a bronze serpent and raised it up on a pole. All who looked at the bronze serpent were healed.
A serpent on a pole is called a uraeus, or the sacred cobra, the symbol of the majesty of the Pharoah of Egypt. The serpent is a symbol of death, it killed by its bite; it was also a symbol of life because it would moult, shedding its old skin for a new skin.
Today we celebrate the feat of the Holy Cross. The Son of Man came down from heaven in order to go up to heaven, taking us with himself. Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert in order to heal the Israelites; God lifted up the Son onto the cross in order to save the world.
Through the serpent, Adam and we have died; through Christ, we are able to be lifted up with God.
Christ, being God. Did not consider being God something to cling to, but, on the contrary,; he emptied himself, taking on the condition of a slave, including death, death on the cross.
Below there is the cross and suffering; above is life and healing, below is death, above is new life; below is the serpent, above the Lord;] below is sin, above is grace; all this is mystery. The One who accepts being under receives the glory of God. Jesus went down to the place of death undertaking the cross and ascended to heaven raised up on the same cross.
The serpent in the garden of Eden gave us death and all have died. The Lord, the Son of God, in the garden of Calvary has given us eternal life.