From: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Israel Facing Life and Death: The Two Ways
[15] "See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.
[16] If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you
this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by
keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall
live arid multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which
you are entering to take possession of it. [17] But if your heart turns
away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and
serve them, [18] I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall
not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and
possess. [19] I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that
I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose
life, that you and your descendants may live, [20] loving the LORD your God,
obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and
length of' days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
Commentary:
30:15-20. The last verses of the discourse addresses a touching and solemn
appeal to Israel, spelling out what its responsibilities are: it is
completely free to choose between good and evil; but depending on whether it
is faithful or unfaithful, it will he blessed or punished by the Lord.
The concluding exhortation (vv. 19-20) is particularly moving: "choose
life", loving the Lord, for "that means life". In the New Testament we find
passages which echo the same ideas: "I am the life," our Lord will say (Jn
14:6); and St Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"
(Gal 2:20); "for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil 1:21).
Cf. RSV footnote to v. 36: this follows the (fuller) Septuagint Greek (as do
the New Vulgate and the Spanish). The words "if you obey the commandments of
the Lord your God" do help to stress the contrast with what it says in v. 17.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
From: Luke 9:22-25
First Prophecy of the Passion
(Jesus said to His disciples), [22] "The Son of Man must suffer many
things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and on the third day be raised."
The Need for Self-Denial
[23] And He said to all, "If any man would come after Me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. [24] For whoever
would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My
sake, he will save it. [25] For what does it profit a man if he gains
the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"
Commentary:
22. Jesus prophesied His passion and death in order to help His
disciples believe in Him. It also showed that He was freely accepting
these sufferings He would undergo. "Christ did not seek to be
glorified: He chose to come without glory in order to undergo
suffering; and you, who have been born without glory, do you wish to be
glorified? The route you must take is the one Christ took. This means
recognizing Him and it means imitating Him both in His ignominy and in
His good repute; thus you will glory in the Cross, which was His path
to glory. That was what Paul did, and therefore he gloried in saying,
`Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ' (Galatians 6:14)" (St. Ambrose, "Expositio Evangelii Sec.
Lucam, in loc.").
23. "Christ is saying this again, to us, whispering it in our ears: the
cross EACH DAY. As St. Jerome puts it: `Not only in time of
persecution or when we have the chance of martyrdom, but in all
circumstances, in everything we do and think, in everything we say, let
us deny what we used to be and let us confess what we now are, reborn
as we have been in Christ' ("Epistola" 121, 3) [...]. Do you see? The
DAILY cross. No day without a cross; not a single day in which we are
not to carry the cross of the Lord, in which we are not to accept His
yoke" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 58 and 176). "There is no
doubt about it: a person who loves pleasure, who seeks comfort, who flies
from anything that might spell suffering, who is over-anxious, who
complains, who blames and who becomes impatient at the least little thing
which does not go his way--a person like that is a Christian only in name;
he is only a dishonor to his religion for Jesus Christ has said so: Anyone
who wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
every day of his life, and follow Me" (St. John Mary Vianney, "Selected
Sermons", Ash Wednesday).
The Cross should be present not only in the life of every Christian but
also at the crossroads of the world: "How beautiful are those crosses
on the summits of high mountains, and crowning great monuments, and on
the pinnacles of cathedrals...! But the Cross must also be inserted in
the very heart of the world.
"Jesus wants to be raised on high, there in the noise of the factories
and workshops, in the silence of libraries, in the loud clamor of the
streets, in the stillness of the fields, in the intimacy of the family,
in crowded gatherings, in stadiums.... Wherever there is a Christian
striving to lead an honorable life, he should, with his love, set up
the Cross of Christ, who attracts all things to Himself" ([St] J. Escriva,
"The Way of the Cross", XI, 3).
25. By this radical statement Jesus teaches us to do everything with a
view to eternal life: it is well worth while to devote our entire life
on earth to attaining eternal life. "We have been warned that it
profits man nothing if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits
himself. Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the
expectance of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the
body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age
which is to come. That is why, although we must be careful to
distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the Kingdom
of Christ, such progress is of vital concern to the Kingdom of God,
insofar as it can contribute to the better ordering of human society"
(Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 39).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.