<HEAD>
	<meta name="description" content="Homilies and scholarly articles of a Byzantine Catholic Priest.">
	<meta name="keywords" content="Catholic, Byzantine, Orthodox, Religion, Pope, Homilies, Sermons, Bible, Orthdox, Orthodoxy, Catholicism, OTR, Radio">
<TITLE>Byzantine Catholic Priest: Homilies according to the Byzantine Calendar</TITLE>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="linkicon.ico">
<BODY BACKGROUND="back.jpg" TEXT=#000000 LINK=#7c6262 VLINK=#7c6262 alink=#7c6262>
<FONT FACE="Maiandra GD">

 
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
     <!-- /* $WEFT -- Created by: Michael Venditti (admin@fathervenditti.com) on 7/20/2016 -- */
  @font-face {
    font-family: Maiandra GD;
    font-style:  normal;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(MAIANDR2.eot);
  }
  @font-face {
    font-family: Maiandra GD;
    font-style:  oblique;
    font-weight: normal;
    src: url(MAIANDR3.eot);
  }
-->


</STYLE>

</HEAD>

<p align=center><img src="header.jpg">

<table align=center border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0 rules=none width=95% cols=2>

	<tr>

		<td align=right valign=top width=20%><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=+1><p align=right>Heaping Corpses to Stumble Upon.<br><br><small>Lessons from cycle II of the feria, according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite:<br><br>Nahum 2: 1, 3; 3: 1-3, 6-7.<br>Deuteronomy 32: 35-36, 39, 41.<br>Matthew 16: 24-28.</small><br><br>The Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest.<br><br><small>The Eighteenth Friday of Ordinary Time.</small></font><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=-1><p align=right>Return to <a href="index.htm">ByzantineCatholicPriest.com</a>.</font></td>		

		<td align=right valign=top width-80%><font face="Maiandra GD"><p align=justify><img src="nahumtomb.jpg" align=right hspace=15 vspace=5>9:19 AM 8/8/2014 — When I was in the seminary in New York three hundred years ago, it was the custom there for each class to choose a patron saint, and our class raised eyebrows by being the first class ever to choose a layman, and not a priest, for our patron saint.  We chose Saint Thomas More.  And if you don't know much about his life and martyrdom, I can recommend the filmed version of Robert Bolt's famous play, <i>A Man for All Seasons.</i>

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;One of the most moving scenes, toward the end of the film, is when More is on trial, just having heard the perjured testimony of Sir Richard Rich, once More's protege, who testified that he heard More say something treasonous about the king which More never said.  And when the time came for him to cross-examine Rich—since defendants against a charge of treason had to defend themselves—he had only one question for his former friend: he asked him what the badge of office was he was wearing; it was the emblem of the Attorney General for Wales.  And More's response was, “Why, Richard!  It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world; but for Wales?”

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;He was, of course, quoting our Lord from today's Gospel lesson.  And we have to take issue with how the New American Bible has translated it for us.  When the New Testament of the New American Bible was revised not long ago, I had hoped that they would correct this passage; but, for whatever reason they didn't.  In the book we must read from at Mass, the line reads: “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matt. 16: 26 NAB).  The actual Greek word used in the text is <font face="System">“ψυχὴν,”</font> which only means “life” in the broadest of senses; what it really means is “soul.”  One could translate it as “life” if one brought to that translation an understanding that the principle of life in any man is his soul; but, in English we don't often make that connection.  The Latin Vulgate uses the word <i>“animæ,”</i> which clearly means soul, the life-giving principle of a man.  Msgr. Knox, whose translation of the Scriptures is my favorite, and who admittedly did not attempt to provide a word-for-word translation but rather tried to convey the best sense of what was being said, gives what I believe is the clearest translation of this verse: “How is a man the better for it, if he gains the whole world at the cost of losing his own soul?" (16: 26 Knox).

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;If we accept that translation, which I am prone to do, then it fits in with what we've been observing in the Scripture lessons last week and the beginning of this week: the necessity of always keeping our eyes fixed on heaven.  It carries through what we observed on Wednesday on the Feast of the Transfiguration: we observed, you may remember, how the three Apostles—Peter, James and John—who were privileged to witness the vision of our Lord in heavenly glory, were destined to also be the three present with him during his Agony in the Garden, reminding us that the road to heaven is the Way of the Cross.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;And if you were tempted to view these musings as nothing but idle speculation, today our Lord makes what amounts to a direct statement; as Msgr. Knox translates it: “If any man has a mind to come my way, let him renounce self, and take up his cross, and follow me” (16: 24 Knox).  There's no ambiguity in that.  Combine that with our first lesson today, in which the Prophet Nahum describes, in full, dramatic technicolor, exactly what's going to happen to the city of Nineveh if they don't repent:

<blockquote><p align=justify>The crack of the whip, the rumbling sounds of wheels; horses a-gallop, chariots bounding, cavalry charging, the flame of the sword, the flash of the spear, the many slain, the heaping corpses, the endless bodies to stumble upon! (Na. 3: 2-3 NAB).</blockquote>

<p align=justify>Oh, my goodness!  Parental discretion advised when that movie comes out!  What are we to make of that, other than that the Prophet Nahum needs to try decaf once in a while?  Even today's Responsorial Psalm gets into the act.  It isn't really a psalm at all; it's taken from the Book of Deuteronomy:

<blockquote><p align=justify>I will sharpen my flashing sword,
<br>and my hand shall lay hold of my quiver.
<br>With vengeance I will repay my foes
<br>and requite those who hate me (Dt. 32: 41 NAB).</blockquote>

<p align=justify>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;I hope there isn't someone out there somewhere who's really depressed and thought that today would a good day to start going to daily Mass, as they might come away thinking that ours is a very vengeful God; but he isn't.  If he was, he wouldn't have come to earth as Christ to take all this away by dying on the Cross; he wouldn't have sent his Mother to Fatima to beg us all to make reparation for all the offenses committed since; and Holy Mother Church wouldn't have included these lessons in the Missal unless she wanted us to understand something very important: “...the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct” (Matt. 16: 28 NAB).

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;And that's where the proper translation of today's Gospel lesson comes into play: we are here for a reason, and that reason is not to create a perfect utopian society here on earth, where no one is in need and everyone is happy; we are here to create pure and sinless souls, through prayer, penance and reparation, worthy of entering the kingdom of heaven.  And our Lord has told us how to do it: “If any man has a mind to come my way, let him renounce self, and take up his cross, and follow me.  The man who tries to save his life shall lose it; it is the man who loses his life for my sake that will secure it” (Matt. 16: 24-25 Knox).

</font>

<p align=center><img src="signature.jpg">

	</tr>

</table>�