Third Sunday of the Great Fast: Veneration of the Holy Cross. Octoechos Tone 7. Holy Martyrs Eutropius and His Companions Cleonicus and Basiliscus (286-305).
Great Fast Day 21. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Hebrews 4:14-5:6. Mark 8:34-9:1.
Read Mark 8:34-9:1
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
We all want to belong, to have a place of connection and identity among others. For some it is our family of origin. For others it is built around work or shared interests and activities. For others it develops around experiences not shared by the majority, but which provide community at the margins. We need relationships. Losing them feels like death. Having to give them up hurts.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus makes a big statement. He calls “the multitude” along with his disciples to hear it. He follows it up with four clauses to strengthen and support it. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Denying ourselves is not what we are inclined to do. So, Jesus makes four arguments in support of it. One, we can’t save our own lives by keeping them. Two, even if we gain everything instead, we still lose. Three, we have no ability to purchase life for ourselves. And then the fourth: if we are ashamed of Jesus and his words, then he will be ashamed of us.
If the requirement of a relationship is disassociation from Jesus and his words, then we are called to deny ourselves the benefit of that relationship. But let us take care in two directions:
Toward persons who do not believe all of Jesus’s words, let us relate to them as Jesus, with his ways, never denying his words but living them as opportunity allows.
With others, we may receive affirmation in relationship because we associate with Jesus and his words. That can feel good. But that can change. It did for Jesus. In less than a week it went from, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” to “Crucify him!”