Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. In poetic language, the prophet Nahum announces the fall of the city of Nineveh with its cruel oppression of the nations of the region. For God is the master of history. This is good news to the people of Judah.
Gospel. In the gospel, Jesus presents the Christian life through three equivalent expressions. It means: to renounce oneself – that is, to accept God’s way of thinking and acting rather than one’s own; to take up the cross – that is, to take the risk of undergoing the fate of the Master and give up personal security; and to follow Jesus – that is, to accept the guidance of Jesus, his gospel, not only in theory but also in practice. Are we ready to do this? Is this what the Christian life means for us?
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
we know that following your Son means
to let someone else lead us
where perhaps we were not intending to go.
But it is your Son who leads us and goes with us.
And so we say: We are willing to go with him,
but help us, Lord, when our hearts grow faint,
that we may keep going with him
who is our Lord for ever.
First Reading
Feast in Jerusalem
Look, there on the mountains, the feet of someone bringing good news, someone who proclaims peace. Judah, celebrate your festivals and fulfill your vows. For the wicked have been defeated, and they will no longer attack you.
Bloodthirsty City
Woe to the bloody city, city of lies and plunder,O city of endless loot!
But look! The crack of whips,the rumble of wheels, and the clatter of hooves!
See the frantic chargers,the flashing swords and shimmering spears,the heaps of wounded,the dead and dying—We trip over corpses!
I will throw filth at you, I will treat you with contempt, and turn you intoa shameful spectacle,
so that everyone who sees you will turn away 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?
Responsorial Psalm
Deuteronomy 32:35cd-36ab, 39abcd, 41
R. (39c) It is I who deal death and give life.
Close at hand is the day of their disaster,
and their doom is rushing upon them!
Surely, the LORD shall do justice for his people;
on his servants he shall have pity.
R. It is I who deal death and give life.
“Learn then that I, I alone, am God,
and there is no god besides me.
It is I who bring both death and life,
I who inflict wounds and heal them.”
R. It is I who deal death and give life.
I will sharpen my flashing sword,
and my hand shall lay hold of my quiver,
“With vengeance I will repay my foes
and requite those who hate me.”
R. It is I who deal death and give life.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Conditions for Being a Disciple
Then Jesus told his disciples:
“If you want to follow me, deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me.
Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for my sake will find it.
What does a person gain by winning the whole world if he destroys his soul? Or what can someone offer in exchange for his life?
Know that the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, and he will reward each person according to his deeds.
Truly, I tell you, some here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Prayers of the Faithful
– Lord Jesus, for those who follow you on the way to the cross as they are persecuted for believing in you, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, for those who follow you on the way of the cross as they renounce themselves to dedicate themselves to taking care of lonely and sick people, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, for those who bear their sufferings in patience with you, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Bread and wine,
Lord our God,
are our strength and joy on the road of life.
Let your Son break for us the better bread
and pour for us the better wine of himself,
that keep us going, and when needed,
even climbing the mountain of suffering
and of apparent defeat.
For we trust in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
you know how much we are afraid
of taking risks and committing ourselves
to the new and the unknown.
But you beckon us through your Son
and you let him be our strength.
And so we pray you:
Keep calling us out of our enclosures
and give us the courage to go all the way
to you and to one another
without fear or compromise.
Let the gospel of Jesus
become good news of happiness and joy
to fill our lives forever and ever.
Blessing
“Take up your cross and follow me.” We must take up the cross demanded by faithfulness to the gospel, our Christian community, our family, our task in life, with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 16:24-28
Follow me…
Peter had just professed his faith in Jesus as the Messiah, but when he heard his Master speaking of sufferings and death, he wanted to dissuade Jesus from going ahead with the possibility. And we listen to Jesus performing an exorcism on Peter, saying: “Get behind me, Satan!”
It is after this incident that Jesus elaborates on the requirements to follow him. Three categorical requirements are presented to anyone who chooses to follow Jesus: “Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.”
Denying yourself means you stop thinking about yourself. It is the reversal of the principles that govern relations among people worldwide. It is the rejection of the pursuit of one’s own interest, the will to achieve gratification, acknowledgements, and benefits. Even in the purest acts of love, there is often some veiled forms of selfishness and ambition.
The disciple of Christ is called, first of all, to give up any personal ambitions. Even our good works or acts of charity shall not be to accumulate merits in heaven. We are called to act, thinking only about our brothers and sisters. Jesus calls us to love freely, in pure loss, as does the Father.
The second imperative, “Take up your cross,” does not mean to endure the small or big tribulations of life. Cross does not refer to suffering as a means to please God. The Christian does not seek to suffer, but to love. The cross is the sign of love and of a total gift. To ‘take up your cross’ means to follow the way of Jesus: to love without measure, to do good, to make others happy.
The third imperative, “follow me,” means to share the choices of Jesus, take part in his project and to bet your life on love. Considering this, we allow the cross hanging on the wall at home, or the cross that we wear around our neck, to be a sign of our wish to be united with Christ in lovingly serving our brothers and sisters, especially the littlest and most fragile.
The cross is the holy sign of God's Love, it is a sign of Jesus' Sacrifice, and is not to be reduced to a superstitious object or an ornamental necklace. Each time we fix our gaze on the image of Christ crucified, let us contemplate that He has accomplished His mission of giving us life, spilling His blood for the pardon of sins.
As a result, if we want to be his disciples, we are called to imitate him, expending our life without any reservations, out of love of God and neighbour.
May the Virgin Mary, united to her Son unto Calvary, help us not to give up in the face of the trials and suffering that witnessing to the Gospel entails