Denying one’s self and taking up one’s cross are the small gate and narrow path that leads to life.

Only by uniting our suffering in life to that of Jesus can we carry our crosses.

 

St. Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome  

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

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

 See, there on the mountains,

The feet of one who brings good news, one who proclaims peace. Judah, celebrate your feasts and carry out your vows. For the wicked have been destroyed, they will not attack you any more.

 Yahweh will now restore Jacob’s magnificence, like Israel’s splendor. For they had been plundered, laid waste as a ravaged vineyard. Woe to the bloody city, city of lies and booty, O city of unending plunder!

 But what! Crack of whips, rumble of wheels and clatter of hoofs!  See the frenzied chargers, the flashing swords and glittering spears, the heaps of the wounded, the dead and dying – we trip over corpses!

 I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt  and make of you a shameful show, so that all who look on you will turn their backs in disgust and say: Nineveh – a city of lust – is in ruins. Who will mourn for her? Where can we find one to comfort her?

 

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

It is I who deal death and give life.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊    

Matthew 16:24-28

 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. For whoever chooses to save his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for my sake will find it. What will one gain by winning the whole world if he destroys himself? There is nothing you can give to recover your own self.

Know that the Son of Man will come in the Glory of his Father with the holy angels, and he will reward each one according to his deeds. Truly, I tell you, there are some here who will not die before they see the Son of Man coming as king.”

 

 Gospel Reflection：

Dying to Self

Ever tried to “lose” something consciously, say like wanting to lose a wallet? It’s pretty hard, right? It is when we are not conscious of something that we may end up losing it. Now, apply this to “losing one’s life for Christ.”

How hard some people try to “lose” their life for Christ and end up hurting themselves and others! When Jesus invites us to deny ourselves or lose our lives for him, he isn’t advocating self-inflicted violence.

 

Here is an exercise: Right at this moment, if you are thinking of your head/tooth, most probably you are suffering from a headache/toothache. Instead, if your head/tooth is healthy, you simply forget you have a head/tooth, but use it well! The same applies to life.

When you have a healthy attitude to life, “forget” your life and let it fall away, for greater purposes. There is a “self-forgetfulness” as you relativize your own life and care for the life of others – a true death that we let in without violence.