If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
Mk.8:34,35
Jesus has just foretold his passion and death, against which Peter protested. To underscore this new way of living, not thinking like man but like God, Jesus says we must shift our fleshly fixation on self to a divine fixation on others.
This is the core of the gospel I find hard. I'm naturally all about myself. It's hard to be less so that others can be more, hard to die to myself so that others can live more fully. Yet... when that happens for me, how come I feel so much more alive?
Jesus, I struggle to renounce myself. Help me lose my life so it may be saved.
Saint Serapion please pray for me.
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