O Felix Culpa, O Happy Sin

September 14, 2025

The incident narrated in today’s first reading has always struck me as strange. In the reading, Yahweh chooses to first punish the Israelites for rebelling against what Yahweh was asking of them through Moses, and then to save them when they repented. The punishment involved the sudden appearance of a large number of snakes  among them, which resulted in many of them dying.   And when the Israelites begged Moses to ask Yahweh to forgive them, then Yahweh tells Moses to create, of all things, a bronze snake and place it in a place visible to all, so that if anybody was bitten, the person had only to look at the snake and s/he would live. It is also interesting to note that the Bible tells us that subsequently this bronze snake became an ‘idol’ of worship among the Jews, and was destroyed by the faithful King Hezekiah (2 Kings ch. 18).

So the very representation or image of that which was killing the Israelites was used as a symbol of hope and salvation. And later that very ‘bronze serpent’ when idolized, becomes a source of unfaithfulness to Yahweh and has to be destroyed.  

In the Gospel reading, we have Jesus himself referring to this story of the bronze serpent, when he says, ‘’Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”   

The Christian interpretation of this apparently strange choice of the bronze serpent being connected to Jesus seems to be clear - the very sinfulness of the jealous Jewish priesthood led to the death of Jesus on the cross, and by that very sin we were given a way to overcome evil in the world and in our own lives, which is what Christians call salvation. This same idea is embodied in the Latin phrase, ‘O felix culpa’  (meaning, ‘’Oh, happy fault’’) found in the Exultet, a prayer found in the Easter liturgy, when we pray,  O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!  

This theme of a wrong, being the very thing that puts everything right in our lives is a powerful and thought-provoking idea.  A wrong choice,  if and when finally acknowledged, can very often make us better persons, more understanding of others’ choices.  I am thinking of the story of the late Pope Francis, who as a Jesuit provincial in Argentina refused to stand up for his Jesuit companions when they were being targeted for challenging the unjust and oppressive policies and practices in Argentina at that time.  Later, as Pope, he became one of the few popes to speak up against oppression everywhere, like those caused by intolerant immigrant policies, and by war, and was also the most accepting of those who did not fit into the Church’s moral positions (like divorcees, and those from the LGBT community).  Did his insight into having faltered in the past make him a more courageous person, a more tolerant and accepting person? Nelson Mandela, another inspiring figure started off as a non-violent activist, then changed to violence to fight apartheid and its destructive effects, and then later moved back to ‘reconciliation’ rather than ‘revenge, to deal with those who had done much harm during the time of apartheid.  Was this because he had come to realize the downward spiral into self-destruction that violence brings with it ?  There are similar examples in the Bible as well. We have Paul, who as Saul relentlessly persecuted the Christians, and then repented and became an apostle for Jesus, and similarly  Matthew and Zachaeus, both tax collectors  who, as a group,  were famous for fleecing people, who both changed their lives dramatically and followed Jesus. Knowing the pain that has been caused when one has done wrong, brings with it the power to make one, stronger and better, not just for oneself, but also for others. This is the essential insight of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement, the one that makes it so effective in helping alcoholics to recover from their addiction, - namely the insight that an alcoholic feels most understood and supported by others who have gone through the pain of alcoholic addiction.   And that it is that empathy that can support the struggling alcoholic from kicking his/her addiction.  

And this seems to be something that we may have found true in our own lives. Haven’t we found it to be true that our strongest traits or most positive behaviours often grow out of mistakes or failures we have experienced in the past?  Failure, or sin, are only destructive, if we do not get up again, just like the boxer only loses the match if s/he doesn’t get up before the 10-count.  However, the story of Judas tells us that if one doesn’t choose to change, or for whatever reason one feels one cannot change, then one can be driven to despair.  So, if we do not learn from our sin/failure, then the ‘serpent’ in our lives cannot become life-giving.

Having said that, I also wish to add that  what we, as Christians, may have forgotten, namely that the same bronze serpent which brought hope and life to the Jews, also turned out, over the passage of the next two centuries, to become a source of harm to them. In the same way,  if our belief in Jesus as our saviour becomes an ‘idol’ for us, so that we come to believe that we would be ‘saved’ by  just giving homage and worship to him, then perhaps, this would be equally harmful to us. For then, instead of becoming more and more like Jesus, we would be satisfied with worshipping him. 

First Reading: Numbers 21: 4b-9

But the people grew impatient on the way;  they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.  The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”  So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Second Reading: Philippians 2: 6-11

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel: John 3: 13-17

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.