Friday, August 08, 2014. 

Today's Liturgical Reading.
Feast of St. Dominic.

Readings: Nahum 2:1, 3, 3:1-3, 6-7; Psalm Deuteronomy 32:35-36, 39, 41; Gospel: Matthew 16:24-28.

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?

Gospel: Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Focus: "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25)

To become a follower of Jesus calls for denial of self, taking up one's cross and following Him (Matthews 16:24). But Christians routinely bypass all three and fabricate a comfortable caricature of Christianity. 

Chiefly, the obsession with self must end. Jesus and His apostles lived like the slum dwellers and tribals of today, but we live in air-conditioned comfort. We also learn to assert ourselves and defeat others; that denying oneself is foolishness. But even in the materialistic world people sometimes deny themselves - as in the erstwhile Communist movement. 

There's a small tract in circulation. The first page shows a man sitting on a chair (i.e. the heart); on the second page Jesus is sitting on the same chair. We must vacate the throne of our hearts and let Christ occupy it. Rick Warren, the famous American evangelist, begins his book 'The Purpose Driven Life' with this dramatic statement: "It is not about you!" Truly life is not about us but about God. Unless we know God, we will never know ourselves.

The cross comes next. God gives us this burden for our good: to transform us. Whilst carrying our cross, it is necessary to display the gentle fruit of the Spirit. That is what Jesus means by saying, "Follow me" (Matthews 16:24). We follow Him when we react in the way, He did, without complaining. 

Fruit: Let us resolve to live Jesus-like life.