Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Luke 9:22-25
“For how does it benefit a man, if he were to gain the whole world, yet lose himself.”
Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum ex Wikimedia commons
Jesus said to his disciples, “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the leaders of the priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again.”
Then he said to everyone: “If anyone is willing to come after me: let him deny himself, and take up his cross every day, and follow me. For whoever will have saved his life, will lose it. Yet whoever will have lost his life for my sake, will save it.
For how does it benefit a man, if he were to gain the whole world, yet lose himself, or cause himself harm?
What do the Fathers Say?
St John CHRYSOSTOM. Now the Saviour in His great mercy and loving kindness will have no one serve Him unwillingly and from constraint, but those only who come of their own accord, and are grateful for being allowed to serve Him. And so not by compelling men and putting a yoke upon them, but by persuasion and kindness, He draws to Himself everywhere those who are willing.
St BASIL the Great . He has left His own life as an example of blameless conversion to those who are willing to obey Him.
Now a desire of suffering death for Christ and a mortification of one’s members which are upon the earth, and a manful resolution to undergo any danger for Christ, and an indifference towards the present life, this it is to take up one’s cross.
ORIGEN. A man denies himself when by a sufficient alteration of manners or a good conversion he changes a life of habitual wickedness. He who has long lived in lasciviousness, abandons his lustful self when he becomes chaste.
St CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world and lose himself, or be a cast away? As if he says, When a man, through looking after the present delights, gains pleasure, and refuses indeed to suffer, but chooses to live splendidly in his riches, what advantage will he get then, when he has lost his soul? For the fashion of this world passes away, and pleasant things depart as a shadow. For the treasures of ungodliness shall not profit, but righteousness snatches a man from death. (Prov. 10:2.)
Pope St GREGORY the Great. Since then the holy Church has withstood a time of persecution, another time of peace, our Lord has noted both times in His command to us. For at the time of persecution we must lay down our life, but in time of peace, those things which have the greatest power to subdue us, our earthly desires, must be vanquished.
By the kingdom of God, is meant the present Church; and some of His disciples were to live in the body up to that time, when they should behold the Church of God built and raised up against the glory of the world.
St AMBROSE. Now our Lord while He ever raises us to look to the future reward of virtue, and teaches us how good it is to despise worldly things, so also He supports the weakness of the human mind by a present recompense. For it is a hard thing to take up the cross, and expose your life to danger and your body to death; to give up what you are, when you wish to be what you are not; and even the loftiest virtue seldom exchanges things present for future. The good Master then, lest any man should be broken down by despair or weariness, straightway promises that He will be seen by the faithful, in these words, But I say unto you, There are some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.
If then we also wish not to fear death, let us stand where Christ is. For they only cannot taste death who are able to stand with Christ,
St AUGUSTINE on Fasting “Do you wish your prayer to fly toward God? Give it two wings: Fasting and Almsgiving. Let us fast, but let us not think this is enough. Let us ask ourselves: To whom does the food I am not eating belong? It belongs to the hungry. If you fast but do not give away what you save, you are not fasting to God; you are merely hoarding for tomorrow.”