An appropriate recollection in today’s readings: For those of us who think we will live forever or who think that we have time to turn away from sin and repent, so we choose to live a life of debauchery and sin. Death comes to all of us, and we do not know when. It may be today, tomorrow, or even in the weeks to come.
It is better for us to take up our cross and follow after Jesus, to walk humbly in his presence, to live justly and humbly, so that we will have hope to rise and be filled with eternal life. Amen.
Saints Sixtus II, Pope, and his Companions, Martyrs , Saint Cajetan, Priest pray for us…
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First reading
Nahum 2:1,3,3:1-3,6-7
Israel restored; Nineveh ruined
See, over the mountains the messenger hurries!
‘Peace!’ he proclaims.
Judah, celebrate your feasts, carry out your vows, for Belial will never pass through you again;
he is utterly annihilated.
Yes, the Lord is restoring the vineyard of Jacob
and the vineyard of Israel.
For the plunderers had plundered them, they had broken off their branches.
Woe to the city soaked in blood, full of lies, stuffed with booty, whose plunderings know no end!
The crack of the whip!
The rumble of wheels!
Galloping horse, jolting chariot, charging cavalry,
flash of swords, gleam of spears…a mass of wounded, hosts of dead, countless corpses; they stumble over the dead.
I am going to pelt you with filth, shame you, make you a public show.
And all who look on you will turn their backs on you and say,
‘Nineveh is a ruin.’
Could anyone pity her?
Where can I find anyone to comfort her?
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Gospel
Matthew 16:24-28
Anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?
‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour. I tell you solemnly, there are some of these standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom.’
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