By St. John of Kronstadt
"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mark 8:34).
"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mark 8:34).
This week of Great Lent is called the Veneration of the Cross, because of the veneration of the Cross and the Passion of the Lord of glory crucified on it, and also because the Church has decreed that on this day the Gospel be read about the bearing of of our own cross, or the sufferings and sorrows that are inseparable in this world from following Christ. "Whosoever will come after me," said Jesus Christ to the people with his disciples, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life," i.e., put to death all his passions and lusts, "for my sake and for the gospel's sake, shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:34-38).
The Lord Jesus Christ commands us to completely renounce ourselves, that is, from Satan working in us, and from all his works, and from all his service, and all his pride, and to take up our cross, that is, to endure the inevitable grave hardships, illnesses, suffering and sorrows sent to us for our purification, admonition, strengthening in virtue and against temptations caused to us by demons and people. We are extremely partial to the life of the flesh; we have become accustomed to sins, have embraced them, and are afraid to declare a decisive war on them, to break off any alliance with them; we take only half-measures against them, as if we take care of ourselves with them, because they have become our natural resources, and therefore we always remain with them, and they take root in us more and more, the fight against them becomes more difficult and persistent, we often lose ourselves for God and become daily prey and acquisitions of the enemy. The words of the Lord: “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it” (Mark 8:35) are fulfilled in us every day. We are daily sold to our enemy by all kinds of sins living and operating in us; we die spiritually every day, and oh! if only we rose up every day and came to life for God through tearful repentance. After all, “our sins separate us temporarily from the Lord” (Is. 59:2). They can separate us forever and ever if we do not turn around and repent from the bottom of our hearts.
But look at the examples of many sinners who became saints: Peter, the publican, Mary of Egypt, Eudokia and others. Look in general at the examples of the saints, how they decisively and irrevocably entered into the struggle with sin, with passions, with the devil; how sincerely they loved God and His truth, and, having renounced the carnal life for Christ and the gospel, saved their souls for ever and ever.
Why don’t we have a decisive struggle against sin? We love temporary life very much, we are afraid to upset the flesh, we are afraid of strong temptations, we extremely love the world and its blessings, forgetting the inevitability of death and the transition to a new life. We expect to live for many years in constant prosperity; in the pursuit of sensual pleasures, we forget the divine nobility of our soul, its purpose for immortality and eternal blessedness; we forget that it is infinitely more valuable than the whole world with all its treasures, which will pass by like a shadow. Condemning our foolish behavior, the Lord says: “What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36–37).
There is another reason why we resolutely do not leave our sinful way of life and remain slaves of the world and its habits, customs and the entire pattern of secular, vain life. Because many of us are secretly ashamed of our faith, ashamed to confess the Lord, to live according to His commandments, according to His gospel, to follow Him, so as not to lose respect in the world, honor in an adulterous and sinful world - and so they allow themselves to be carried away by the flow of worldly things, sinful, vain, often stupid and harmful life. They realize that they are spending such precious time recklessly, to their detriment. They also know the highest goal of human life on earth, they also know about the sacrifice of atonement made for them on the cross, but the prevailing way of life, the concepts of light, the peculiar, perverted views of their comrades on life, on faith, on the Church do not allow them to leave that crossroads, on which they have placed themselves, and do not allow them to come to their senses, to think about their fate. They are miserable slaves of their environment, slaves of a sinful world lying in evil.
But if you want, Christian, to follow Christ and enter into His glory, then you must certainly follow Him, fulfill His commandments, humble yourself, pray, love Him, suffer and endure. “Through your patience save your souls” (Luke 21:19). A terrible retribution awaits unfaithful Christians because they rejected God’s great care for themselves and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, made for them on the cross. They were ashamed of Him, His gospel, living according to the gospel. He, too, will be ashamed of them when He comes to judge the world in the glory of His Father, will not recognize them as His own, and will forever cast them away from His face. “Whoever is ashamed of Me,” says the Lord, "in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). A terrible fate!
Therefore, while we have time, let us reject the passions, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, let us not fear the cross, which leads us into eternal glory, and let us irrevocably follow Christ wherever He commands: “For where He is, there His servant will also be” (John 12:26). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.