Friday of Week 18 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

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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Friday of Week 18 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

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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