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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (Deut 4:32-40): Moses said to the people: «Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

»All this you were allowed to see that you might know the Lord is God and there is no other. Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire. For love of your fathers he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power, driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your heritage, as it is today. This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever».
Responsorial Psalm: 76
R/. I remember the deeds of the Lord.
I remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I remember your wonders of old. And I meditate on your works; your exploits I ponder.

O God, your way is holy; what great god is there like our God? You are the God who works wonders; among the peoples you have made known your power.

With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. You led your people like a flock under the care of Moses and Aaron.
Versicle before the Gospel (Mt 5:10): Alleluia. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Mt 16:24-28): Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”

Fr. Pedro IGLESIAS Martínez (Ripollet, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, the Gospel clearly confronts us with the world... It is absolutely radical in its approach, and it does not allow any half measures: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24). In many instances, when we are facing suffering generated by us or by others, we can hear: “We have to accept the sufferings God sends us... This is God's will..., or words to that effect”. And we keep on gathering sacrifices in very much the same way as those trading stamps we used to collect, with the hope of showing them at Heaven's audit department when our day to present our statements of accounts arrives.

But our suffering per se would be of little value. Christ was no stoic: He was thirsty, He was hungry, He was tired, He did not like to be forsaken. He let others help him... where He could, He soothed pain, whether physical or moral. So, what is happening, then?

Before loading with our “cross”, the first thing we must do is to follow Christ. It is not a matter of first suffering and then following Christ... Christ must be followed from our Love, and from there we can then understand the sacrifice, the personal negation: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:25). Love and mercy may lead us to sacrifice. Any true love engenders, one way or other, some sort of sacrifice, but not all sacrifice engenders love. God is not sacrifice; God is love, and only from that perspective can pain, fatigue and the cross in our lives, have any meaning, following the model of man the Father reveals to us in Christ. St. Augustine said: “When one loves, one does not suffer; but if one does suffer, the very suffering is loved.”

In the ensuing events of our life, we are not to seek a divine origin to explain our sacrifices and shortcomings: “Why is God sending this to me?”, but we rather have to find a “divine usage” for them: “How can I transform this into an act of faith and love?” It is from this evaluation how we are to follow Christ and how —certainly— we may deserve the Father’s merciful glance. The same glance with which the Father looked at his Son in the Cross.

Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “The soul will be a partaker of God Himself, and will do, together with Him, the work of the Most Holy Trinity. O souls created for this and called to this, what are you doing? What are your occupations? You do not see that, while seeking after greatness and glory, you are miserable and contemptible, ignorant.” (Saint John of the Cross)

  • “What is important for all people, what makes their life significant, is the knowledge they are loved. God is there first and loves me. And that is the trustworthy ground on which my life is standing” (Benedict XVI)

  • "We live by the Spirit"; the more we renounce ourselves, the more we "walk by the Spirit." (Gal 5:25; cf. Mt 16:24-26) (Catechism of the Church Catholic, no. 736)

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