1.- Prophet Nahum´s message is locked in the forgotten chest. It is necessary to take it out and to air it. It is included in the Bible for some reason. It is precise to discover it, to investigate it. After all, whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction (Rom 
15,4).
2.- The message is presented to us like a song: See there on the mountains the feet of one who brings good news! (Nh 2,1) The feet of the messenger appear in close-up, before than the news. He comes running, flying over the mountains. But, what is he announcing? Is his message a present one? Can we cheer up with his announcement? Which are the risks? Is it not true that sometimes we kill the messenger?
3.- Well then, the messenger announces the peace, but also the event of the year: the fall of Nineveh, Assyrian empire capital. Let us see the text in its own context. The name of Assyria comes from Asur, empire’s God. For them, any people of the world must submit to his god. The enemies are exterminated with no compassion. The imperial troops seed cruelty and terror everywhere. Sebaquerib, Assyrian emperor in the seventh century, does not hide it: “Under the commandment of the god Asur, the High Lord, I fell over the enemy like a hurricane… I defeated them and obliged them to step back… I cut their throats like if they were lambs… My horses risen on the hind feet, in full harness, submersed in the blood, which flew like a river; the wheels of the battle truck were splashed by blood and flesh. I filled the valley with warriors corpses, like if they were grass
4.- Nineveh´s fall takes place on year 612 b. C, one hundred years after Israel´s invasion by the Assyrian empire (721). The prophet mentions Thebes´ fall (663), Egyptian empire´s capital (Nh 3,8). Therefore, his message must be located afterwards. Syrian oppression is its highest point, and in this situation is also Manassehs´ long kingdom (698-643), a tributary rendered to the empire’s will: He shed innocent blood in such a quantity that it filled up Jerusalem from one end to the other (2R 21,16). According to the jewish tradition, prophet Isaiah was one of his victims.
5.- The title of the message reads as follows: Oracle upon Nineveh, Nahum´s vision text. Therefore, it is an oracle, a prophecy, a vision. The message is written down before that it happens. It is the procedure indicated to Habakkuk: Write down the vision; inscribe it on tables son it can be easily read… If it delays, wait for it, for it will come and will not be deferred (Hb 2,2-3)
6.- The prophet begins singing God´s power, evident in nature and history: Before him the mountains and the hills melts; the earth trembles and all the peoples. Who can stand before his fury?… Yahweh is good for those who hope; in the day of trouble he shelters them; He remembers those who trust in him when the flood engulfs them (Nh 1,5-6). Something similar is sang in the psalms: Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all its peoples, let rivers clap their hands, hills and mountains sing with joy before the Lord for he comes to rule the earth (Ps 98), the Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples´ designs (Ps 33). And in the Magnificat Mary sings: He has put down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up those who are downtrodden (Lk 1,52).
7.- The message certainly goes up stream and appeals to many persons: What do you plot against the Lord? (Nh 1,9), it is to say, what do you think against him?. Your thoughts are not his thoughts; your plans are not his plans. The prophet looks in advance the fall of a powerful and cruel empire. And he sees how the oppressed liberation time arrives: I will break their yoke from your neck and tear away your shackles (Nh 1,13). That event will make evident God´s action in history. The prophet invites to hope what has been announced, to be vigilant to discern the facts whenever they may happen.
8.- The living God, Lord of history, is not neutral before the oppression and the crime: Oppression will not rise a second time, because they, entangled among thorns like drunkards, and be consumed like dry stubble (Nh1, 9-10). The oppressor, intoxicated with power, is condemned. And he is identified: from Assyria has come the one who counsels villainy and lots evil against Yahweh (Nh 1,11). This is what their king can expect: the end of his dynasty, the destruction of his god, the preparation of his tomb, the public disregard (Nh 1,14).
9.- Can we be glad, then?. Of course! We must announce and celebrate it! See, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news. Judah, celebrate your feasts and carry out your vows, for the wicked have been destroyed, they will not attack you any more. (Nh 2,1-2). The feast can include a trip to Jerusalem to comply the vows promised during the passed bad times. The good news are announced under the image of a vineyard that is repaired: Yahweh will now restore Jacob´s magnificence, like Israel´s splendour, for they have been plundered, laid waste as a ravaged vineyard (Nh 2,3)
10.- The prophet contemplates Nineveh´s siege arriving in the Lords day : 
Against Nineveh a destroyer advances! … as chariots storm through the streets and dash madly through the squares, they look like flashing torches, or darting lightening bolts… Here I am against you, oracle of the Lord (2, 2-14).
11.- The city, oppression and cruelty symbol, is the history´s prostitute: Woe to the bloody city, city of lies and booty. O city of unending plunder!… The harlot is paying for her harlotries. She traded nations with her prostitutions and caught peoples by her spells. “I am against you”, Yahweh Saboath says. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your disgrace”… Are you any better than Thebes by the Nile, surrounded by water, her rampart the river and the water her wall?… her allies. Yet she was carried away and held captive among the exiles. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every road (Nh 3, 1-10). She also suffered the horrors of the siege. No, Nineveh is not better than Thebes, Egyptian empire´s capital, which fell under the siege of Asurbanipal troops. Nineveh is condemned, with no remedy: Brace yourselves for the siege: draw water, strengthen the bulwark… the fire will devour you… the sword will cut you down (Nh 3,14). Assyrian empire (with its merchants, soldiers and scribes) is a plague of locusts and greenflies, which go away and no one knows where (Nh 3,17)
12.- The message ends with the defeat of the oppressor empire: O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber, your nobles lie down fast asleep while over the mountains your people scatter and there is no one to gather them up. Nothing can heal your wounds; your injury is fatal! All clap their hands when they hear about your fall, for who has not suffered constantly the plague of your cruelty? (Nh 3, 17-19).
13.- In the consolation book the messenger announces the end of the exile: How beautiful are over the mountains the feet of the messenger who proclaims the peace, who brings good news, who announces the salvation, who says to Zion: Your God is already reigning! You may get out of Babylon, you may go back to your country: Yet not in escape, or in fright for ahead is Yahweh, your vanguard (Is 52, 7-12).
14.- Jesus announces Jerusalem fall, the one that slay the prophets and stone your apostles (Lk 13-34). In his trip to Jerusalem, when approaching the city, Jesus weeps over it, saying: If only to day you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing. Yet days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with barricades and shut you in and press on you from every side. They will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and leave not a stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God. (Lk 19, 41-44). It is to say, you did not know how to take advantage of the occasion he gave to you, you have rejected the good news about peace (Acts 10,36; Rom 10, 16). Peace is a fruit of conversion (Mt 10, 34-36).
15.- One of the disciples is impressed by the temple greatness. Jesus says: No stone will be left upon another (Mk 13,2). The catechesis comes after the announcements. The disciples should not allow to be misled (Mk 13,5), false Messiahs and false prophets will arise (Mk 13,22), they must hold out in the midst of prosecution, treachery and hate (Mk 13,13), they must expect the accomplishment of Jesus words: this generation will not pass away until all this has happened, but no one knows when it will come (Mk 13, 30-32); therefore, you must be alert and watch (Mk 13,33): when you see the idol of the oppressor set in the place where it should not be (may the reader understand), then let those in Judea flee to the mountains (Mk 13,14). In the year 70, Vespasian troops assault the city and the temple is totally destroyed. Christian community flees out of Jerusalem.
16.- The second Vatican Council (1962-1965) sees in the first Christian community (Acts 2,42-47) the ecclesiastic renovation model (LG 13; DV 10). The councils establish a new relationship of the church with the world. The church abandons the old identification between christianity and society, she goes out from the Christianity situation, and elects to live like a community in the midst of the society, she respects the autonomy of the temporal business, she acknowledges the legitimate social plurality, she renounces to impose the Gospel by force, and she offers the Gospel in the weakness of freedom.
* Dialogue: What do we see that is falling?
- the American empire
- the soviet block (1989)
- the franquista dictatorship (1975)
- the Italian Christian-democracy (1965)
- the old christianity church (1965)
- a long pontificate, which intended to restore it (2005)
- the clerical system (average age: 67 years; 40% over the 75 years)
- ETA violence: permanent hold fire (22-3-2006)