Mark 8:34-9:1 NRSVue
34He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
1And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”
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Reflection on Mark 8:34-9:1
Inspiration from 2025-02-21 Daily Prayer
A disciple cannot be above their Master. Christ is always the headline for us in how to live our lives. As he took up his cross and accepted whatever life threw at him, so must we. There is always a need for us to practise some self-denial if the false self in us is to die. In this way, with his grace at work in us, we save our real lives. We live to die, and we die to live. This is the true life, both now and for eternity. ‘Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it’ ( Matthew 10:39).
By reminding him of this question, ’What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose his/her soul?’, St Ignatius of Loyola inspired St Francis Xavier to give his life completely to Christ as a missionary in the Far East.