August 7, 2026
Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 411
Reading 1
See, upon the mountains there advances
the bearer of good news,
announcing peace!
Celebrate your feasts, O Judah,
fulfill your vows!
For nevermore shall you be invaded
by the scoundrel; he is completely destroyed.
The LORD will restore the vine of Jacob,
the pride of Israel,
Though ravagers have ravaged them
and ruined the tendrils.Woe to the bloody city, all lies,
full of plunder, whose looting never stops!
The crack of the whip, the rumbling sounds of wheels;
horses a-gallop, chariots bounding,
Cavalry charging, the flame of the sword, the flash of the spear,
the many slain, the heaping corpses,
the endless bodies to stumble upon!
I will cast filth upon you,
disgrace you and put you to shame;
Till everyone who sees you runs from you, saying,
“Nineveh is destroyed; who can pity her?
Where can one find any to console 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
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
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.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080726.cfm
Commentary on Nahum
2:1,3; 3:1-3,6-7
Today we have a single reading from the very short Book of
Nahum (just three chapters). Nahum is one of the so-called ‘minor’ prophets, as
opposed to ‘major’ prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
Nahum made his prophecy just before the fall of the Assyrian
capital of Niniveh in 612 BC. His joy over the city’s and the empire’s downfall
is understandable when one considers the savage cruelty for which it was
notorious over nearly three centuries. Rightly he calls it a “city of
bloodshed”.
Today’s reading speaks of the imminent collapse of Niniveh,
overthrown by the new juggernaut—Babylon. It is a triumphant song of joy over
the fall of a great city (remember how the Book of Jonah said it took three
days to cross—mostly likely somewhat of an exaggeration).
The passage opens with the messenger coming across the
mountains of Judah with a wonderful message of peace. Such good announcements
of deliverance are common in Scripture—here it is deliverance from the threat
of Assyria. Later there will be the deliverance from exile in Babylon, and even
later Paul in the Letter to the Romans will speak of our deliverance from sin
through the “good news” of Jesus Christ when he quotes from this passage:
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! (Rom
10:15)
The people are now urged to “fulfil your vows”, that is, the
promises made to God during the times of distress:
for never again shall the wicked invade you;
they are utterly cut off. (Nah 1:15 in NRSVue)
This statement was fulfilled when Niniveh fell to the
Babylonians in 612 BC. The Assyrian invasion in the days of King Manasseh was
to be the last—but there were, unfortunately, other invasions to come.
The Lord was now restoring the vineyard, that is, uniting
the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which had been ravaged and ruined by the
enemy.
Niniveh, on the other hand, is a “city of bloodshed”. It is
a city:
…utterly deceitful, full of plunder—
no end to the prey!
There is a graphic description of the Assyrian war machine
which resulted in:
…piles of dead,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end…
The wholesale killings of its conquered victims was well
known. The Assyrians were notorious for their ruthlessness, brutality and
terrible atrocities. Many of their victims were beheaded, impaled or burned.
There is a graphic run of short phrases giving a vivid
picture of a mighty army at war, over-running its weaker enemies—the crack of
the whip, rumbling wheels, galloping horses, racing chariots, charging cavalry,
flaming swords, flashing spears bringing death and destruction—heaped corpses
and endless bodies to fall over.
We are told that the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III boasted
of erecting a pyramid of chopped-off heads in front of an enemy’s city. Other
Assyrian kings stacked corpses like cord wood by the gates of defeated cities.
The prophet’s descriptions are no exaggeration.
In verses which are omitted from our reading, Nahum
describes Assyria as a doomed harlot:
Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute,
gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery,
who enslaves nations through her debaucheries
and peoples through her sorcery,
I am against you,
says the Lord of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face,
and I will let nations look on your nakedness
and kingdoms on your shame.
So now Niniveh, the proud and arrogant city, is to be
humiliated, pelted with “filth”. Like a disgraced harlot, she will be shamed
and made a show of. She will be punished like a prostitute receiving punishment
for her adulteries. She is being punished less for her idolatry or her practice
of ritual prostitution—for she was a pagan city anyway—but for the terrible
cruelties to her victims. Now she is utterly destroyed and there is not a shred
of pity for her fate. She has received her just deserts.
There must have been times during the Assyrian conquests
that God’s people wondered if their domination by foreigners would ever come to
an end. But it did. The joy of that discovery pervades the reading. Evil can
never last indefinitely. It has always within it the seeds of its own
destruction.
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Commentary on
Matthew 16:24-28
Jesus has already shocked his disciples by telling them in
advance what is going to happen to him as Messiah. Now he goes further and
tells them that they too will have to have a part in his experience.
They are to follow in his footsteps. Like him, they are to
be ready to take up their cross—whatever it may be—and carry it behind him. For
some, it will mean dying for Christ and the Kingdom. For others, it will mean
living totally for Christ and the Kingdom. Notice, Jesus tells them to take up
their own cross, not his. That cross will be different for each person; it
takes the form of some difficult thing which it is clear we must accept and not
run away from. It is not to be sought for—that would not be a healthy thing to
do. It will come, unmarked and unchosen, but clear.
The other way, to avoid all pain and seek only what brings
pleasure and enjoyment, is to go down a cul-de-sac, a blind alley that leads
nowhere. That is what we mean by trying ‘to save our life’. It is a sure way to
lose it.
What is the use of gaining “the whole world”, becoming a
multi-billionaire and being profoundly unhappy? Living for oneself only is to
end up finding one’s self dying. Letting go of one’s life to live for others,
to live for truth, love and justice is to live a full life, even if shortened
by physical death.
Many of the saints died long before their time, but achieved
in a few years what most of us cannot do in a long life. There is a scriptural
phrase applied to some of the saints who died relatively young:
Consummatus in breve, explevit tempora multa.
It means that, although their life came to an early end,
they had filled it with many good things.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2186g/
Friday,
August 7, 2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father of
everlasting goodness, our origin and guide, be close to us and hear the prayers
of all who praise you. Forgive our sins and restore us to life. Keep us safe in
your love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 16: 24-28
Then 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. 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 anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his
life? Or what can anyone 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 then he will
reward each one according to his behaviour. In truth I tell you, there are some
standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming
with his kingdom.'
Reflection
The five verses of today’s Gospel
continue with the words of Jesus to Peter which we meditated on yesterday. Jesus
does not hide nor lessen the demands of discipleship. He does not allow Peter
to take the initiative and puts him in his place: “Far from me!” Today’s Gospel makes explicit these demands for all
of us;
•
Matthew 16: 24: “Take up his cross and follow
me.” Jesus draws the conclusions which are valid even until now: “If anyone
wants to follow me, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow
me.” At that time, the cross was the death sentence which the Roman Empire
inflicted on marginalized persons and bandits. To take up the cross and carry
it behind Jesus was the same as to accept to be marginalized by the unjust
system which legitimized injustice. The Cross is not fatalism, nor exigency
from the Father. The Cross is the consequence of the commitment freely taken up
by Jesus to reveal the Good News that God is Father and that, therefore, we all
have to be accepted and treated as brothers and sisters. Because of this
revolutionary announcement, Jesus was persecuted, and he was not afraid to give
his life. Nobody has greater love than this: to give one’s life for his friends
(Jn 15: 13). The witness of Paul in the letter to the Galatians indicates the
concrete significance and importance of all this: “But as for me, it is out of
the question that I should boast at all, except of the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”.
(Ga 6: 14). And he ends by referring to the marks of the tortures which he
suffered: “After this, let no one trouble me, I carry branded on my body the
marks of Jesus” (Ga 6: 17).
•
Matthew 16: 25-26: “Anyone who loses his life
for my sake will find it.” These two verses make explicit universal human
values which confirm the experience of many Christians and non-Christians. To
save one’s life, to lose one’s life, to find one’s life. The experience of many
is the following: Anyone who is always seeking goods and riches is never
satisfied. Anyone who gives himself to others, forgetting himself, experiences
a great happiness. This is the experience of the mothers who give themselves,
and of so many people who do not think of self but think of others. Many do
this and live in this way almost out of instinct, as something which comes from
the bottom of the heart. Others act in this way because they have had a painful
experience of frustration which has led them to change attitude. Jesus is right
in saying: “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who
loses his life for my sake will find it”. The reason is important: “For my
sake”, or like Mark says: “For the sake of the Gospel” (Mk 8: 35). And he ends
saying: “What, then will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting
his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life?” This last phrase
recalls the Psalm where it is said that no one can pay the ransom for his life:
“But no one can ever redeem himself or pay his own ransom to God; the price for
himself is too high, it can never be that he will live on forever and avoid the
sight of the abyss” (Ps 49: 8-10).
•
Matthew 16: 27-28: The Son of Man is going to
come in the glory of the Father, and he will reward each one according to his
behavior. These two verses refer to the hope regarding the coming of the Son of
Man in the last times, as judge of humanity, as he is presented in the vision
of the Prophet Daniel (Dn 7: 1314). The first verse says: “The Son of Man is
going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels and will reward each
one according to his behavior”. (Mt 16: 27). This phrase speaks about the
justice of the Judge. Each one will receive according to his own behavior. The
second verse says: “There are some standing here who will not taste death
before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom”. (Mt 16: 28). This
phrase is an advertisement to help to perceive the coming of Jesus, the Judge
of the actions of life. Some thought that Jesus would have come afterwards (1
Th 4: 15-18). But in fact, Jesus was already present in persons, especially in
the poor. But they did not perceive this, Jesus himself had said: “Every time
that you have helped the poor, the sick, the homeless, the prisoner, the
pilgrim, you helped me, it was me!” (cfr. Mt 25: 34-45).
Personal Questions
•
Anyone who loses his life will find it. What
experience do I have regarding this?
•
The words of Paul: “As for me, instead, there is no other glory than the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified for me and I for the world”.
Do I have the courage to repeat these words in my life?
Concluding Prayer
Proclaim with me the greatness of Yahweh, let us acclaim his
name together.
I seek Yahweh and he answers me, frees me from all my fears.
(Ps 34: 3-4)
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