Daily Reading

First Reading

Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7

A shatterer has come up against you.
    Guard the ramparts;
    watch the road;
gird your loins;
    collect all your strength.
The shields of his warriors are red;
    his soldiers are clothed in crimson.
The metal on the chariots flashes
    on the day when he musters them;
    the chargers prance.
Ah! City of bloodshed,
utterly deceitful, full of booty—
    no end to the plunder!
The crack of whip and rumble of wheel,
    galloping horse and bounding chariot!
Horsemen charging,
    flashing sword and glittering spear,
piles of dead,
    heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
    they stumble over the bodies!
I will throw filth at you
    and treat you with contempt,
    and make you a spectacle.
Then all who see you will shrink from you and say,
“Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?”
    Where shall I seek comforters for you?

Psalm

Deuteronomy 32:35cd-36ab, 39abcd, 41

Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
    for the time when their foot shall slip;
because the day of their calamity is at hand,
    their doom comes swiftly.
Indeed the Lord will vindicate his people,
    have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone,
    neither bond nor free remaining.
See now that I, even I, am he;
    there is no god besides me.
I kill and I make alive;
    I wound and I heal;
    and no one can deliver from my hand.
when I whet my flashing sword,
    and my hand takes hold on judgment;
I will take vengeance on my adversaries,
    and will repay those who hate me.

Gospel Reading

Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Reflection

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Even a cursory reading of the Gospels reveals that Jesus’s death is the center and goal of the narrative, that which animates and gives verve to the story.

How can we make sense of this stubborn cruciformity of Christianity? We can do so only if we remember that God is love. In our pride, our rebellion, our cruelty, and above all our fear, we human beings had changed ourselves into a dysfunctional family. Designed to soar into the fullness of God, we had turned ourselves tragically inward, locking ourselves into the cramped and icy space of sin.

When it appeared as though the human race were doomed to self-destruction, God sent not simply a prophet, a representative, or a plenipotentiary but his own self, his own heart. And this divine Son, incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, entered into the darkness and the tempest of human disorder. He went to the poor, the hungry, the self-righteous, those drunk on power and those with no power—to everyone languishing in the iciness of the far country—and called them home.