Instruction for the Sunday of All Saints (5)

Whoever wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Mk 8:34).

What is it You say, O Lord: that whoever wishes to follow after You, You say, must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow after Me? Each one of us would wish to be there, where You are, but not everyone wishes to walk the path by which You walked, that is, the narrow, sorrowful, suffering path; and especially rarely, rarely does anyone resolve, for Your sake, to deny himself, his own sinful, corrupt will, his own passion-ridden heart, or his own passions and lusts—though they have wearied us, though they are ruinous to us, still they somehow seem dear to us, and it is hard and painful to part with them once and for all. No: it is not after You, O Lord, that the sinner wishes to go, but after his own heart, after its ruinous inclinations, and after the world, which lies in wickedness.

But the word of the Lord is true and unalterable. Whoever wishes to follow after the Lord, that is, by the path of righteousness and truth, the path leading to eternal life, must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow after Him. But why does the Lord say: if anyone wishes? — Because He compels no one by force to follow after Him, but leaves it to each one’s good will to choose the path of salvation; to each one is given the will to choose good and evil, life and death. It is said: let him deny himself: what does this mean? It means to renounce within oneself everything evil and cunning, to refuse all fellowship with sin, which has penetrated our soul through and through, our mind, our heart, our will, our body, all our senses, all our movements; to declare war upon oneself, to fight unceasingly with oneself, with one’s own sinful inclinations, passions, habits, injustices; to hate one’s own soul for its unceasing violations of the law of God, for its cunning, for its whole inner constitution of life, hostile to God, for all the cunning thoughts of this present visible life, and for its rejection of care for the life of the age to come. A wholly just requirement. The human soul is full of every kind of injustice: vanity, favoritism, willfulness, self-love, weak faith, pride, envy, ill-will, malice, spite at another’s misfortune, the harboring of grudges, blasphemy, murmuring, impatience, love of gain, litigiousness, injustice, the wronging and oppression of one’s neighbor, love of pleasure, intemperance, and every impurity. Sometimes it is hard to recognize, in a man, the soul that was made in the image and likeness of God—so does sin distort it! But man of his own free will disfigures himself, destroys himself. It is clear that of his own free will he must also save himself, with God’s help: this is why the Lord leaves salvation to our own will. Whoever wishes, He says, to come after Me, let him deny himself—that is, cast off sin, come to hate the sin which you have chosen, which you have loved. But since it is hard for you to give up sin, because it has become a habit, has become, as it were, a second nature to you—and since evil people will persecute you, should you begin to withdraw from their company, and the devil will fiercely pursue you—you will of necessity have to bear griefs, unpleasantness, insults, labors, struggles, contests—you will be, as it were, crucified upon a cross. It is in this sense that the Lord said that whoever wishes to come after Him must take up his cross. Everyone has his own cross; who is without some weakness of soul or body? Who is without some sorrow, or sickness, or enemies, seen and unseen, hidden and open? Pray, endure everything unpleasant, grievous, and heavy, without murmuring. This is your cross; but having taken up your cross, go after the Lord, that is, bear it patiently, without murmuring, steadily, to the end; hold fast to righteousness to the end, and hate unrighteousness to the end; expose unrighteousness, fight for righteousness to the end: and there will be given you a crown of righteousness from the righteous Judge. Amen.