NOTES for Mar 8:34-9:1

“If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” What does it mean to deny oneself? It would seem that our selfhood, our person, is the one thing that belongs to us directly, that we deal with every minute, and that parting with it is inconceivable. We receive an answer to this question in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal 2:16–20). At some point comes the realization that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Yet it comes only after a long ascetic struggle of renouncing one’s own will, nourished by an ardent desire to become like Christ in everything. And the principal way in which we can become like Him is to ascend the cross—our own cross.

It would be wrong, however, to think that the Lord is indifferent to our individual persons, or that He might wish to erase our selfhood. When it is said that God will be all in all, this means that the “all” in which God will be “all” retains its own identity; otherwise one could simply say that God will be all. Yet while retaining its uniqueness, it will contain no place for anything opposed or hostile to God. Everything will be directed toward God, not away from Him.

This begins here and now. We must clearly understand what an “adulterous generation” is and consciously separate ourselves from it. Above all, we must bear witness to our faith before it. It sometimes seems to us that it is better to remain silent in certain situations so as not to start arguments... but that is always betrayal.