11 Aug 2023 – Friday of Week 18

11 Aug 2023 – Friday of Week 18

Memorial: St Clare, 1193-1253, follower of St Francis, founder of the Poor Clares. Patron of television.

1st Reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-40

Moses calls the people to appreciate God’s works and keep God’s commands

Moses said to the people: “Ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of? Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Responsorial: Psalm 76:12-16, 21

R./: I remember the deeds of the Lord

I remember the deeds of the Lord,
I remember your wonders of old,
I muse on all your works
and ponder your mighty deeds. (R./)

Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is great as our God?
You are the God who works wonders.
You showed your power among the peoples. (R./)

Your strong arm redeemed your people,
the sons of Jacob and Joseph.
You guided your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (R./)

Gospel: Matthew 16:24-28

Take up the cros and follow me

Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

The Fidelity Book

Today we start a series of readings from Deuteronomy, a book to be treasured, a series of sermons about fidelity to God. It seems to have been a favourite book for Jesus, who quoted it during his temptations (Matthew 4:4, citing Deut 8:3) and later, when teaching the most important commandment of the law (Matthew 27:37 / Deut 6:5). Deuteronomy stands in a set of writings that go from Moses through the earliest settlement in the land and on to the religious renewal called the “Deuteronomic reform” (2 Kings 22-23). In a persuasive, homiletic style, it does much more than repeat the law of Moses; it exhorts and reasons from a spirit of compassion and love. Some of its memorable lines form the daily prayer of Judaism and are cited in the following paragraph: Hear, O Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart (Deut 6:4-5).

God calls on Israel to remember its past history and realise that nothing so great ever happened before. Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire? Deuteronomy then asks for a special kind of obedience: fidelity to Yahweh alone. In a homiletic style Deuteronomy often mentions the word “today.” Each day is a new today, a new opportunity to profess our grateful obedience to the Lord. Then you will “have long life in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.”

This is reinforced by the promise of Jesus. In spite of our sins, death will not mean for us utter destruction. By faithfully him through life, we will inherit the new, abundant life foretold in Deuteronomy. If our lives are based on loyalty, generously responding to the will of God, we too will reach the promised land.

The language of paradox

Jesus often uses paradox to shock his hearers to a new view of things. One of the most striking instances is in today’s gospel, when Jesus says, “anyone who wants to save his life will loose it; but anyone who looses his life for my sake will find it.” Another way of expressing that is to say, “if we seek ourselves only, we will lose ourselves, whereas if we reach beyond ourselves towards God and towards his Son Jesus we will find our true selves.”

If we care only for our own preferences, we risk losing ourselves, whereas if we look for God’s will, which always involves looking out for others, we will find life in this world and eternal life in the next. Jesus expressed this fundamental paradox of his teaching in another way when he said, “give and it will be given to you.” In other words, it is in giving that we receive. Our experience of life teaches us the truth contained in this paradox. It is when we look beyond ourselves to serve the good of others, that we experience the Lord’s own joy, which is a foretaste of the fulfilment of life in the kingdom of heaven.