Homily on the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord
By St. John of Kronstadt
“Whoever desires to come after, let him deny himself,
By St. John of Kronstadt
“Whoever desires to come after, let him deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).
On this Sunday, which is called in the Church the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross, the Church prescribes that the Gospel be read about self-denial and the bearing of the cross, which the Gospel requires of everyone who wishes to follow Christ (Mark 8:34–38). And so, let us now talk about this for the glory of Christ and for our enlightenment and salvation.
"Whoever desires to come after Me," says the Lord, "let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." The Lord does not force anyone to follow Him, but leaves it to the free will of each one - to follow or not to follow Him, whether to live for Him, for righteousness and holiness, to eternally co-reign with Him, or for oneself, for the flesh and for the indulgence of one's passions, the adulterous and sinful world and the devil, and for eternal shame and torment. The Lord leaves our free will inviolable; for He wants us to voluntarily, according to the conviction of the heart, love Him, fulfill His commandments and turn away from absurd, pernicious passions; and not as slaves, under duress and involuntarily. But how can we not follow You, sweetest Jesus, our eternal Life, our breath, our Light, our Joy and blessedness! Whoever follows You irrevocably, here too, anticipates heavenly blessedness and will certainly inherit eternal blessedness with You. This is an immutable, all-joyful truth, striking, so to speak, in everyone's eyes with its obviousness.
Thus the apostles, martyrs, venerables, righteous men and all the saints of ancient and modern times followed Christ with joy, willingly sacrificed for the Lord all the blessings of the world, their very lives, and did not sin in their trust, were not deceived in their hope, inherited the unshakable, eternal Kingdom. Why then do the majority of people not follow Christ? Because of unbelief or little faith, because of an attachment to temporary life and its fleeting blessings, because of the pride and arrogance of a worldly education not enlightened by grace, because of the impurity of a passionate heart and the established inclination of the will to pursue only earthly goals; because of spiritual ignorance; because of the lack of development of taste for spiritual blessings, which require preparation, exercise of thought and heart in spiritual matters, such as: prayer, contemplation of God, reading the word of God and in deeds of Christian love and mercy and training the flesh in abstinence. But what is a person deprived of, what wonderful blessings, what peace, what spiritual sweetness, what spiritual light, what blessedness, who does not follow Christ, but follows only his sinful desires, habits, passions, inclinations? What in the world can replace Christ, the immortal Life? Nothing. No treasures, no pleasures and comforts. Deny yourself, the Lord says further, and take up your cross and follow Me. Deny yourself, this means - denounce your sinful will, your wicked inclinations, tendencies, passions, in a word, - every sin living in you, acting in you, binding you, darkening you, defiling you, humiliating you and dishonoring you, preventing you from following Christ to heaven, to strive for true repentance, for pure virtue and Christian perfection and making you a slave to corruption and death, perverting your nature, created according to God in truth and holiness - preparing for you eternal separation from God and eternal torment. Yes, brothers and sisters! It is absolutely necessary to deny yourself. If we impartially, with a clear conscience, look into ourselves, into our conscience, into our heart, into our deeds, into our idleness and into our whole vain life, then we will immediately find that for the most part we think, and desire, and say, and do not what is essentially necessary for us; not according to the intention and will of our all-good and all-wise Creator and Lord, but contrary to His intentions, according to our own perverse, wicked will. Look carefully into your heart. What is it occupied with? What does it love? What is it drawn to? To its Creator, to goodness, to truth and holiness, to true well-being and blessedness, to mutual love and help? No. Hearts are occupied for the most part with themselves, permeated with egoism. How many passions are in one heart! How many sources of death! Each passion is a source of death: for each can kill a man forever, if he does not repent and change, does not abandon it. So, man, deny yourself. But this is hard; passions have become your second nature. What to do! But it's hard; passions have become your second nature. What to do! And the cutting off of the members of the body can be very painful, but when it is necessary, they give an arm and a leg to be cut off, and even an eye to be torn out. You must do the same with your passions. "If your right hand offends you, cut it off and throw it from you" (Matt. 5:30), that is, not the hand of the body, but the passion that is in your soul, which has become like your hand, that is, like your natural member; this will be painful for you, like crucifixion on the cross, but for that it is saving and will lead you to eternal life; you will be delivered from the all-destructive poison - sin, from the power of the devil, from the fire of hell. Take up your cross and follow Christ, that is, fulfill His will, His commandments, statutes, advice. And warriors in war firmly follow the commander's instructions in order to gain victory, and they win; you too will win if you follow your almighty Leader - Christ. For whoever wants to save his soul, says the Lord, will lose it. What does it mean here to save your soul? It means not to touch the passions of the soul, to leave them alone, to let them live and grow strong and to control our mind and our heart and our will, in a word - our soul and body; to live unrepentantly, not thinking about death and eternal judgment. To save yourself in this way means to eternally ruin your soul, to lose it.
It should be noted that the Lord, saying this, meant primarily the time of persecution for faith in Him and the cases of confessing His name before the persecutors: for there were some Christians who, in order to preserve temporary life, wealth, honors, renounced Christ and the Christian faith and thereby lost their souls, perished through their renunciation, through passion for earthly goods. But even now there are many who, excessively loving temporary life and its blessings and carnal life, refuse to follow Christ, to fulfill His commandments, live contrary to the duties of their calling and do not repent of it - and thus lose their souls for eternity. "But whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel," says the Lord in today's Gospel, "he will save it." Here again, the cases of the martyrs are primarily meant, who for Christ, for the sake of preserving faith in Him and love for Him, voluntarily lost their property, ranks, relatives, and their very lives, and thus saved their lives for eternity, for Christ and His eternal kingdom. "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul?" This is said in explanation of the previous thought, i.e., that it is better to lose all riches, honors, relatives, and life itself according to the flesh, than to destroy one’s soul forever through renunciation of God, in order to preserve temporary life and temporary benefits that soon leave us. The soul is incomparably more precious than the whole world, as created in the image of God and destined for immortality, and it cannot be redeemed from eternal torment by anything, unless we redeem it here by faith in the merits of the Redeemer, in the redeeming blood, by courageous confession of His name, and by a good life. "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words," says the Lord, "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." Here it is said about the need for boldness or courage and fortitude in confessing Christ, the Son of God, about not sparing one’s life for Christ and about following His will, because if anyone here considers it a shame to follow Him, to fulfill His commandments, or is ashamed to follow the decrees of His Church, for the sake of pleasing the world, the flesh and the devil, the Son of God will not recognize him as His own at His second coming and at His terrible judgment.
A terrible word, brothers and sisters! Let us cast aside false shame and laziness towards piety, towards attending the Divine Services, laziness towards reading the word of God and studying it, let us deny ourselves, let us cast aside the indulgence of the many-passioned flesh, which evil deeds the world and the ruler of the world – the devil – are in, and let us take up our cross and follow Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, our King and Lord, who has prepared for us the Kingdom in heaven from the foundation of the world. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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