“And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me — the call to take up the cross is the public application of the passion prediction to discipleship. The call is not addressed only to the twelve but to the crowd along with the disciples — cross-bearing discipleship is the universal form of following Jesus. Deny themselves (aparnēsasthō heauton) is the absolute denial of self as the organizing principle of life. Take up their cross is the acceptance of the death that following Jesus may require — literally in the first century, and always spiritually.
Church Fathers on Mark 8:34
After shewing to His disciples the mystery of His passion and resurrection, He exorts them, as well as the multitude, to follow the example of His passion.
For a man who denies another, be it brother or father, does not sympathize with him, nor grieve at his fate, though he be wounded and die; thus we ought to despise our body, so that if it should be wounded or hurt in any way, we should not mind its suffering.
Or else, as a skilful pilot, foreseeing a storm in a calm, wishes his sailors to be prepared; so also the Lord says, 'If any one will follow me, &c.'
Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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