Gospel of February 18, 2021 with the comment of Pope Francis

READING OF THE DAY From the book of Deuteronòmi: Dt 30,15-20 Moses spoke to the people and said: «See, today I place before you life and good, death and evil. Today, therefore, I command you to love the Lord, your God, to walk in his ways, to observe his commands, his laws and his standards, so that you live and multiply and the Lord, your God, bless the land where you are about to enter to take possession of it. But if your heart turns back and if you do not listen and let yourself be carried away to prostrate yourself before other gods and to serve them, today I declare to you that you will certainly perish, that you will not have long life in the country you are about to enter to take possession of it, crossing the Jordan. Today I take heaven and earth as witnesses against you: I have placed life and death before you, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice and keeping yourself united with him, since he is your life and your longevity, in order to be able to live in the land that the Lord he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ».

GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Luke 9,22: 25-XNUMX At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: "The Son of man must suffer a lot, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and resurrected. the third day".
Then, to everyone, he said: «If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross every day and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Indeed, what advantage does a man have who gains the whole world but loses or ruins himself? '

WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER We cannot think of the Christian life outside this path. There is always this path that he made first: the path of humility, the path also of humiliation, of annihilating himself, and then rising again. But, this is the way. The Christian style without a cross is not Christian, and if the cross is a cross without Jesus, it is not Christian. And this style will save us, give us joy and make us fruitful, because this path of denying oneself is to give life, it is against the path of selfishness, of being attached to all goods only for me. This path is open to others, because that path that Jesus made, of annihilation, that path was to give life. (Santa marta, 6 March 2014)