If we seek our own needs, we risk losing ourselves

Nahum 2:1.3.3:1-3.6-7, Mt. 16:24-28. In today's first reading, the Prophet Nahum celebrates the victory of goodness and fidelity over massive forces of evil and oppression, and cruelty imposed on them by Assyria: "We see, hear, feel all at once the terrifying assault on the city walls: the crack of the whip, the rumbling sound of wheels, horses galloping, chariots bounding, cavalry charging, the flame of the sword, the flash of the spear, many slain, heaping corpses the endless bodies to stumble on." After this warlike imagery, we need the sayings of Jesus in today's Gospel: “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 this 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 seek our own needs and preferences, we risk losing ourselves, whereas if we look towards the God, which will always mean looking towards 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 own experience of life teaches us the truth contained in this paradox. It is when we look beyond ourselves to others, to the Lord present in others, that we experience the Lord’s own joy, the Lord’s own life, which is a foretaste of the joy and life of the Kingdom of Heaven. Even for us in our sins, death need not mean utter annihilation and oblivion. By obediently following Jesus to death, we will not experience the ultimate death described by the Prophet. Ours will be the new, abundant life that Jesus, the Son of God, promised and gives to us. That rich and peaceful existence begins in ourselves and reaches outward. Each act of self-denial can seem restrictive and even destructive of life. Yet if positive, self-denial arises from true faith, in response to the will of God and loving concern, if it lays before us the possibilities of the “promised land,” if it leads to peace in our homes and relationships, then it opens up for us a whole new field of activity and creative ingenuity.

May the Lord continue to open our minds to the reality of life and may it motivate us to enrich the lives of others as we walk with on the path of faith! Amen!! Keep safe and have a wonderful day!!!