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The BreadCast


Daily Exposition of the Readings for Catholic Mass...

as well as Prayers to the Saints on the General Roman Calendar (for the U.S.).  

From the books Our Daily Bread and Prayers to the Saints by James H. Kurt - both with imprimatur.

Aug 4, 2022

(Nah.2:1,3,3:1-3,6-7;   Dt.32:35-36,39,41;   Mt.16:24-28)

“It is I who bring both death and life,

I who inflict wounds and heal them.”

When the Lord comes indeed “He will repay each man according to his conduct.”  And the justice and judgment that are the Lord’s alone are evident in His work amongst Israel and their enemies, spoken of in our first reading and psalm today.

“The flame of the sword, the flash of the spear, the many slain, the heaping corpses, the endless bodies to stumble upon!” such is the graphic description of the horrors inflicted by the “bloody city” of Ninevah, of Assyria, whose nation is “all lies, full of plunder, whose looting never stops!”  And that which they have visited upon the nations, and upon the children of Israel, shall come to rest upon their own heads.  For “surely, the Lord shall do justice for His people” and prove to the evildoers that it is He alone who “will sharpen [His] flashing sword”; it is He whose “hand shall lay hold of [His] quiver.”  For vengeance is with the Lord alone and it is He who “will repay [His] foes and requite those who hate [Him].”

All those who take up the sword, what can be said of them?  “Close at hand is the day of their disaster, and their doom is rushing upon them.”  Like Ninevah they shall be “destroyed, and who can pity her?”  Is she not like he who has “gain[ed] the whole world and ruin[ed] himself in the process?”  And shall not all who trust in “horses a-gallop, chariots bounding, cavalry charging,” themselves hear “the rumbling sound of wheels”?  As the Lord has duly repaid those on earth, so He will more greatly repay all on the Day of salvation.

But even as death is visited upon the sinner, life dawns upon the righteous.  For them, “the bearer of good news [comes], announcing peace.”  Those who are pierced to the heart by the cross of Christ in this life, those who bear its weight through this forsaken land, walking in the footsteps of the Lord – even these shall “see the Son of Man come in His kingship.”  For “whoever loses his life for [God’s] sake will find it,” and it shall be preserved unto eternity.

Brothers and sisters, though wounded here, the Lord Himself shall heal us.  Let death come to all sin, and salvation shall be assured.

*******

O LORD, let us not be trampled underfoot

but come rather to see your glory

by following in your way.

YHWH, it is you alone who bring both death and life, for life itself is in your hands, as is judgment of those who violate it.  Your justice is both sure and true, and so you will repay each man according to his deeds: those who have embraced plunder and looting cannot but come to the death they have made; but those who embrace the Cross and lay down their lives in this world shall be blessed greatly by the sight of the Son of Man coming in His glory.  Although such vision cannot but bring agony to those whose hearts are set on the ill-gotten gain of this evil age, the destruction of all evil in the LORD’s reign brings joy to the heart set upon Him who passes not away.

And so, dear LORD, let us be numbered among those who seek to lose their lives that they might be found walking in the way of your only Son.  We pray the angels of Heaven may carry us to your kingdom on the Day He judges the world and all souls.