11 February 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
On the edge of the promised land Moses sets a choice before Israel: “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” To love the Lord, walk in his ways and keep his commandments is life; to turn away and bow to other gods is death. And Moses pleads: “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you.” The Psalm paints the same two roads: the one who delights in the law of the Lord is “like trees planted by streams of water”, while the wicked are “like chaff that the wind drives away.” On the second day of Lent the Church places this choice before us too.
But Jesus reveals that the road to life passes through the cross. “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected… and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Then he says to all: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Daily: not one heroic act, but the small faithful choices of each day. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” Today, 11 February, we also remember Mary's appearing to St Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858. There Our Lady called for prayer and penance, and countless sick people have found healing or the grace to carry their cross. Mary, who stood by the cross of her Son, teaches us that the cross carried with Jesus leads to life.
Theme: “Choose life.”
Two ways, the daily cross, and Mary of Lourdes beside the sick.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,” Deuteronomy 30:19
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
Apply: Each morning of Lent, say: today I choose life; today I choose you, Lord.
“They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” Psalm 1:3
“Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Apply: Name your daily cross and carry it with love this week.
“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 66:13
“Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother,” John 19:25
Apply: Visit or call a sick person this week, and pray a decade of the Rosary for them.
God sets before us life; Jesus shows the way through the cross.
Mary stands with us and with the sick.
Take-home resolution: Offer one daily cross for the sick throughout this week.
Dear friends, Moses sets a choice before Israel: I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:19). Lent begins with this same choice.
Jesus shows us the road to life. The Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed and on the third day be raised. Then he says to all: if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23).
Daily. Not one great sacrifice, but small faithful choices: patience at home, honesty at work, kindness to the difficult. And Jesus asks: what does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? (Luke 9:25).
Today we remember Our Lady of Lourdes and pray for the sick on the World Day of the Sick. At Lourdes Mary asked for prayer and penance. Many have been healed; many more have received strength to carry their cross. With Mary, let us choose life by following Jesus on the way of the cross. Amen.
Children, Jesus says: carry your cross every day. That means doing hard good things with love. Mary helps us, like she helped St Bernadette at Lourdes. Let us pray for sick people today!
Lord God, you set before us life and death and call us to choose life. Help us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow your Son. Through the prayers of Our Lady of Lourdes, comfort the sick and give them strength and healing. Amen.
On the first full day of Lent the Church puts a choice in front of us. Moses says to Israel, “Choose life.” Jesus says that the way to life passes through the Cross, and that it is walked daily. Psalm 1 draws the same two roads: the tree by the water and the chaff in the wind. Lent is not only about giving something up. It is about which way we are walking.
Setting.
Deuteronomy is presented as Moses' last words, spoken in the land of Moab, with the Jordan still to be crossed. Moses himself will not cross it. These verses close his final appeal. Ancient treaties ended with lists of blessings and curses and called witnesses, and Deuteronomy shapes Israel's covenant in a similar way. Other nations called on their gods as witnesses; here it is heaven and earth (v. 19), for Israel has only one God.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” (30:15)
“Today” comes four times in this reading. Moses speaks as if the choice were being made at this very moment, and each generation hearing the book read is placed in the same moment.
“Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,” (30:19)
God gives the answer to his own question: he tells them what to choose. And the choice reaches beyond the one who makes it, to children not yet born.
“loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him;” (30:20)
Here is what choosing life means in practice: three verbs of relationship.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the way of Christ leads to life and a contrary way leads to destruction, and that the “two ways” have always had a place in the Church's teaching (CCC 1696, citing Deuteronomy 30:15–20). The Didache, one of the oldest Christian writings, opens with the words that there are two ways, one of life and one of death. St John Paul II applies Moses' words directly to our time as a call to be unconditionally for life (Evangelium Vitae 28). God made us able to choose, and this is why our choices matter so much (CCC 1730–1733).
Setting.
Peter has just said that Jesus is “the Messiah of God” (9:20). Immediately Jesus tells them what this will mean. This is the first of the announcements of his Passion in Luke. The elders, chief priests and scribes are the groups that made up the leading council in Jerusalem, so he is speaking of the action of certain authorities, and no blame falls on the Jewish people (CCC 597).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (9:23)
He speaks “to them all”: this is not only for apostles or martyrs. For his first hearers a cross was a horror, and no one took one up unless they were going to their death. To deny oneself means no longer putting oneself at the centre.
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (9:24)
The Greek word for “life” (psychē) also means the self. A life clutched tight is lost, and a life given away is kept. “For my sake” is the key: it is not loss for its own sake.
“What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” (9:25)
A businessman's question. Where Mark says “life”, Luke says “themselves”.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Jesus calls his disciples to “take up their cross and follow him”, for Christ suffered for us leaving an example, and he wants to associate with his sacrifice those who are its first beneficiaries (CCC 618). It also says plainly that taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance (CCC 1435). So the daily cross of Lent need not be something unusual. It may be the illness, the difficult relative, the dull duty, accepted with love.
Does Jesus want us to hate ourselves?
No. “Deny themselves” does not mean despising the person God made in his image. It means giving up the claim to be the centre of everything. The saying ends in saving one's life and finding one's true self. The Lord asks for the loss in order to give something greater.
In the Roman calendar 11 February is the commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes, where Mary appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. St John Paul II made this date the World Day of the Sick, first kept in 1993. Today's readings suit the day: the sick who carry their cross daily are often those who teach the rest of us what it means. Today is a good day to visit a sick person or to pray for them.