Having warned his disciples of the future that lies ahead for him, Jesus now calls the crowds and his disciples together, and lets them know, in no uncertain terms, what following him entails (Mark 8:34 – 9:1): To be a follower of Jesus is to be ready to travel the way that Jesus went:
“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Whoever wishes to save his life, will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)
To follow Christ means to live a paradox. Self-preservation and self-centered aggrandizement lead to nothing. They lead only death. Surrendering one’s life totally to Jesus and to his Way (as expressed in the Gospel) leads to an enrichment that nothing else can supply.
This is a clear challenge. Anyone who wants to follow Jesus must be ready both to suffer and to give their life in love for others. Those who live so as to preserve their present lives, hanging on to what they have with no regard for transcendent values or the needs of others, are destined to lose everything.
This actually is an attractive teaching for people who are being persecuted for their Christian faith. Those who betray their faith in order to make their lives comfortable, or to hold onto their property, end up losing something more valuable: their integrity, their wholeness, their consistency. Followers of Jesus gain certain things that are more important than human life or material possessions.
What gain, then, is it for a person to win the whole world and in doing so ruin what is valuable in his life? What can we offer in exchange for our life?
We have a long list of martyrs to the faith whose memories we cherish, and whose example we respect and admire. We have no list, and no desire, to remember those who avoided martyrdom and compromised their faith and their values, and who may have enjoyed wealth and position as a result. They lived on for a while and then disappeared; the martyrs are still very much alive and with us.
We still live in a Church in persecution. There still are those who, when their faith is challenged, are “ashamed of Jesus and his words” and deny their faith to save their immediate way of life. How sad for them that they are doomed, at the end of this life, to hear the terrible words cited in today’s gospel reading: “I do not know you.” But for those of us who persevere, we have faith that we will not taste death until we can see that the Kingdom of God has come in power.
We are called to be a Christian community, as witnesses to the Kingdom being established in the world. We look forward to our own Pentecost and to witness our own Second Coming of Jesus, our own the Parousia.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!