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From: Deuteronomy 4: 32-40

The Lord's Special Providence Towards His People

(Moses said to the people,) [32] "For ask now of the days that are past,
which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth,
and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as
this has ever happened or was ever heard of. [33] Did any people ever hear
the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard,
and still live? [34] 0r has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation
for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by
wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great
terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before
your eyes? [35] To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is
God; there is no other besides him. [36] 0ut of heaven he let you hear his
voice, that he might discipline you; and on earth he let you see his great
fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. [37] And because
he loved your fathers and chose their descendants after them, and brought
you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, [38] driving out
before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to
give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day; [39] know therefore
this day, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and
on the earth beneath; there is no other. [40] Therefore you shall keep his
statutes and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go
well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong
your days in the land which the LORD your God gives you for ever."

Commentary:

4:32-40. The end of this first discourse carries an important theological
message: the profound notion of one God (monotheism); the election of Israel
as God's specific people; his special and kindly providence towards this
people; the might of God, as manifested in the prodigious works he does in
favor of the chosen people; and the consequence of all this--Israel's duty
to be faithful to the one and only God, keeping his commandments and
offering due cult only to him; by so doing, Israel will continue to enjoy
his protection.

Reading this and other passages in the sacred books shows the efforts the
inspired writers made to update the teaching of religious traditions and
apply it to the situation and needs of Israelites in later periods; this is
perhaps the reason for the frequent calls to fidelity to the Covenant. "In
the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one
reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for choosing them from
among alt peoples as his special possession: his sheer gratuitous love (cf.
Deut 4:37; 7:8; 10:15). And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it
was again out of love that God never stopped saving them (cf. Is 43:1-7) and
pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins (cf. Hos 2)" ("Catechism of the
Catholic Church", 218).

The Deuterononiic formula of "the Lord is God ["ha-Elohim", that is, the
only God] and there is no other besides him" (v. 35), which occurs often
(cf. 4:39; 6:4; 32:39; etc.) is also the essence of the Prophets' message
(cf. Jer 2:11-33; Is 41:2-29; 44:6; 46:9). The Prophets strove to draw
Israel towards or maintain it in fidelity to the One and Only God who
revealed himself to the patriarchs and to Moses, and helped to develop and
deepen an appreciation of monotheism, of the universality of the power of
Yahweh, of his moral demands, etc. But the core of all this teaching is to
be found expounded, profoundly and very specifically, in the book of
Deuteronomy. This teaching builds up the notion of the Lord as a jealous
God" (cf. Ex 20:5) who requires his adherents to be totally obedient to him;
it is a notion incompatible with worshipping the divinities adored by other
peoples (cf. Ex 20:3).

Being good, obeying the commandments of the Law of God, brings life (v. 40),
initially understood as longevity; whereas sin often brings with it
misfortune or death, as a punishment fro, God (cf. Ezek 18:10-13,19-20;
etc.). The fact that God is just in his treatment of man, rewarding him or
punishing, sooner or later, for the good or the evil he does, is a message
that runs right through the Old and New Testaments. In ancient texts, the
accent is on reward or punishment in this present life. In the New Testament
more emphasis is put on divine retribution in the future life. It is not
surprising that there should be this line of development in the biblical
ethic: God takes account of time and grace to lead men to the fullness of
truth.

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: Matthew 16:24-28

Jesus Foretells His Passion and Resurrection (Continuation)

[24] Then Jesus told His disciples, "If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. [25] For
whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it. [26] For what will it profit a man, if he
gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give
in return for his life? [27] For the Son of Man is to come with His
angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay every man for
what he has done. [28] Truly, I say to you, there are some standing
here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in
His Kingdom."

Commentary:

24. "Divine love, `poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has
been given to us' (Romans 5:5), enables lay people to express
concretely in their lives the spirit of the Beatitudes. Following
Jesus in His poverty, they feel no depression in want, no pride in
plenty; imitating the humble Christ, they are not greedy for vain show
(cf. Galatians 5:26). They strive to please God rather than men,
always ready to abandon everything for Christ (cf. Luke 14:26) and even
to endure persecution in the cause of right (cf. Matthew 5:10), having
in mind the Lord's saying? `If any man wants to come after Me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me'" (Matthew 16:24)
("Apostolicam Actuositatem", 4).

25. A Christian cannot ignore these words of Jesus. He has to risk, to
gamble, this present life in order to attain eternal life: "How little
a life is to offer to God!" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 420).

Our Lord's requirement means that we must renounce our own will in
order to identify with the will of God and so to ensure that, as St.
John of the Cross comments, we do not follow the way of those many
people who "would have God will that which they themselves will, and
are fretful at having to will that which He wills, and find it
repugnant to accommodate their will to that of God. Hence it happens to
them that oftentimes they think that that wherein they find not their
own will and pleasure is not the will of God; and that, on the other
hand, when they themselves find satisfaction, God is satisfied. Thus
they measure God by themselves and not themselves by God" ("Dark Night
of the Soul", Book 1, Chapter 7, 3).

26-27. Christ's words are crystal-clear: every person has to bear in
mind the Last Judgment. Salvation, in other words, is something
radically personal: "He will repay every man for what he has done"
(verse 27).

Man's goal does not consist in accumulating worldly goods; these are
only means to an end; man's last end, his ultimate goal, is God
Himself; he possesses God in advance, as it were, here on earth by
means of grace, and possesses him fully and forever in Heaven. Jesus

shows the route to take to reach this destination--denying oneself
(that is, saying no to ease, comfort, selfishness and attachment to
temporal goods) and taking up the cross. For no
earthly--impermanent--good can compare with the soul's eternal
salvation. As St. Thomas expresses it with theological precision, "the
least good of grace is superior to the natural good of the entire
universe" ("Summa Theologiae", I-II, q. 113, a. 9).

28. Here Jesus is referring not to His Last Coming (which He speaks
about in the preceding verse) but to other events which will occur
prior to that and which will be a sign of His glorification after
death. The Coming He speaks of here may refer firstly to His
Resurrection and His appearance thereafter; it could also refer to His
Transfiguration, which is itself a manifestation of His glory. This
coming of Christ in His Kingdom might also be seen in the destruction
of Jerusalem--a sign of the end of the ancient people of Israel as a
form of the Kingdom of God and its substitution by the Church, the new
Kingdom.