The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of the situation of people experiencing severe persecution who seek justice.
A look back
The reading from the Book of Nahum describes the destruction of the Wicked City declaring the ruin to be imminent and inevitable.
* [2:2] One who scatters has come up against you: the enemy is about to crush Nineveh, dispersing and deporting its people (v. 8; 3:18).1
The Book of Deuteronomy celebrates the care of the Lord for the people.
Indeed the Lord will vindicate his people,
have compassion on his servants,2
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus presents the connection between the Cross and self-denial.
* [16:24] Deny himself: to deny someone is to disown him (see Mt 10:33; 26:34–35) and to deny oneself is to disown oneself as the center of one’s existence.3
Angela Maynard comments that we are familiar with the gravity of dying by the cross, consider the act of denying oneself and following one who was less than popular. To her, this is the ultimate act of humility. Humility is defined as freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble. We are living in a very troubled world and as she reflects on today’s reading she concludes that lack of humility is a root cause of many troubles. For example, who determines that a group of people are less than? Who decides that one cause or agenda is paramount, even though harm to others may result?
For today:
Take some time to reflect on what it actually means to die by the cross. Jesus did this to save us!
Consider the position the disciples were in if they continued to follow Christ.
How does pride or arrogance stand in the way of my relationships?
How does pride impact the decisions I make? Personally, professionally, and as a community member?
“The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.”
--Saint Vincent de Paul4
Don Schwager quotes “Walk as Christ has walked,” by Caesarius of Arles (470-543 AD).
"When the Lord tells us in the Gospel that anyone who wants to be his follower must renounce himself, the injunction seems harsh; we think he is imposing a burden on us. But an order is no burden when it is given by one who helps in carrying it out. To what place are we to follow Christ if not where he has already gone? We know that he has risen and ascended into heaven; there, then, we must follow him. There is no cause for despair - by ourselves we can do nothing, but we have Christ's promise... One who claims to abide in Christ ought to walk as he walked. Would you follow Christ? Then be humble as he was humble. Do not scorn his lowliness if you want to reach his exaltation. Human sin made the road rough. Christ's resurrection leveled it. By passing over it himself, he transformed the narrowest of tracks into a royal highway. Two feet are needed to run along this highway; they are humility and charity. Everyone wants to get to the top - well, the first step to take is humility. Why take strides that are too big for you - do you want to fall instead of going up? Begin with the first step, humility, and you will already be climbing." (excerpt from SERMONS 159, 1.4-6)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7 comments that if we want to experience this promise of victory, we need to identify our enemies. What is the real evil in each situation?
Is my real enemy the person who slighted me when I expected praise? Or is it my resentment as I hold on to the insult? Is my real enemy a challenging circumstance, such as illness, unemployment, or loneliness? Or is it the anxiety that makes it impossible for me to entrust these situations to God and experience the comfort of his presence? In every circumstance, God promises to act on our behalf—but our enemy, the devil, uses these circumstances to entice us to give up and slip away from God.6
Friar Jude Winkler fleshes out the conflict between Israel and Assyria and the role of the Babylonian Empire. The Gospel contradiction is to save our lives we must lose it. Friar Jude reminds that our choice to sin brings its own consequences.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that Matthew Fox has studied, written, and taught on theology and the mystics for decades. In one of his books on Meister Eckhart, Fox writes:
In the soul, Eckhart maintains, there is “something like a spark of divine nature, a divine light, a ray, an imprinted picture of the divine nature.” [1] . . . But we have to make contact with this divine spark by emptying ourselves or letting go. And then we will know the unity that already exists. [2]7
Fr. Richard writes:
Meister Eckhart was frequently criticized by his contemporaries (and still is by some people today) because his language was far too unitive. We like our distinctions! We don’t want to hear that we have the same soul as our enemies, not our personal ones and certainly not our cultural or global ones! We want to hate them, don’t we? And far too often our religion seemingly gives us permission to do so. But mystics don’t hate anyone. They simply can’t. They pray, as Jesus does on the cross, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). The mystic knows the other person doesn’t know. It’s not malice as much as ignorance and unawareness. And, of course, it’s a burden to know; it’s a responsibility to know, because once we know that God has inhabited all that God has created, then all of our distinctions are silly. They are just ways to create self-importance and superiority for ourselves and put down someone else. We’ve played this game since grade school!7
Persecution and death that are part of our salvation history are countered when, like the mystics, we don’t hate anyone. We pray, as Jesus does on the cross, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.”
References
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