“St Paul notes that he dies to himself daily in order to serve the Lord Jesus. He is, of course, speaking in a spiritual sense about death rather than in a literal sense. We die daily when we choose to deny ourself and take up our cross to follow Christ. We die when we admit to our sins and repent of them. We die to ourself when out of love we put another ahead of ourself and meet their needs rather than our own wants and desires. We die to ourself when we forgive others rather than demanding they pay their debts to us. We die to ourself when we humble ourselves and openly admit when we have done something wrong and acknowledge our own guilt. We are changed by our spiritual lives, by living in love for others— our old self dies and a new self is born. We become Christ like. This is St Paul’s version of the Lord’s own words that we who follow Him must deny ourselves, take up our crosses to follow Christ.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“For the Easterner the goal is nirvana, which means “where there is no wind,” and for us the wind of the Spirit is vital, even when it blows harshly. We do not move from meditation into contemplation, into self-annihilation, into death, in order to be freed from the intolerable wheel of life. No. We move—are moved—into death in order to be discovered, to be loved into truer life by our Maker. To die to self in the prayer of contemplation is to move to a meeting of lovers.” (Madeleine L'Engle)
“To live up to God's perfection means to die to self. No one wants to die to self. This is a painful process. Yet, that is exactly what we are called to do if we are to be God's children. If we live for self, we can't live for God or for others and serve them as Christ served others. The Fathers of the Eastern Church call this the sin of self-esteem. While healthy self-esteem is important, unhealthy self-centeredness is indeed sinful.” (Marianne C. Sailus)
“In 1 Corinthians 14:1 St. Paul writes (after his famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13 where he defines what love truly is) that we should “pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts.” A corresponding note to this passage in the Orthodox Study Bible emphasizes, “We are to desire or want the gifts of the Spirit, but pursue the love of God.” The order of Paul’s phrasing is important here. He tells us to first purse love. Spiritual gifts are only important in how we use them to love others. The love of God is what is most important. But it is hard to love as God loves unless we truly seek God and die to self so that we can suffer long and be patient on behalf of others, be humble, trust God in all things, and all of the other aspects of love Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 13.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
“The one who truly loves God and passionately seeks the truth is called to die to self, take up the cross of unjust suffering, and be prepared to live and even die for others, especially those who are hardened in sin and blinded by ingratitude. In the Church, everyone is called to be a disciple of Christ. This involves conversion – and inward turning of mind and heart toward Christ – and a conscious and deliberate commitment to follow the Lord, no matter what the cost.” (Fr. Harry Pappas)
“There are those of us who have a narrow and limited understanding of self-denial. We pick and choose at random what we will give up and what we will do in the name of Christianity. We proceed to label them "Our little crosses we must bear." "I'll give up movies and/or TV during lent." Thus we conclude with a list of trivialities that have no bearing on the "self-denial" Jesus speaks about in our Gospel lesson for today. Christ-like self-denial goes much deeper. It penetrates the facade which hides our hidden sins, our shortcomings and our faults.” (George Nicozisin)
“…the essence of a fallen world is that the best cannot be attained by free enjoyment, or by what is called ‘self-realization’ (usually a nice name for self-indulgence, wholly inimical to the realization of other selves); but by denial, by suffering.” (J. R. R. Tolkien)
“Every founder of a new organization recruits followers for himself with the promise of good fruits and many pleasures but deliberately remains silent about the hardships and labors which lead to those fruits and pleasures. Our Lord Jesus is the only one Who spoke the whole truth to His followers, both the bitter and the sweet side of the truth. He did not promise fruits without service, nor glory without suffering, nor ultimate rest without the thorny path, nor victory without struggle, nor pleasure without bitterness, nor the kingdom without tears and self-denial. Although our Lord counted the many difficulties which would befall His followers, in the end He does not abandon them without comfort. He gives meaning to their sufferings and does not leave them in darkness.” (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)
“When we begin living in the reality that all we need for ultimate well-being is Christ Himself, then the good things of this world can and do move us closer to Him…we live in the reality that Christ is sufficient for our ultimate well-being, then when the good things of this world are taken away from us—whether through unintended suffering or voluntary self-denial—this also propels us on the journey toward Him.” (Robin Phillips)
“In and through His humanity, the Lord Jesus reveals truth, grace, and glory (Jn 1:14). Sent from God the Father, the Son of God offers Himself for us (Rom 8:3), humbling and emptying Himself (Phil 2:2-7) so that He might redeem us forever, although we are sinners. His humble self-effacement is our prototype for true self-denial (Mk 8:34) – the model for anyone who must shoulder a cross…Denial of self in favor of Christ’s will is necessary, for we know that following His way yields genuine blessing. Of course, this path must be learned and mastered bit by bit through practice, failure, and repeated efforts carried out with the support and loving tutelage of the Holy Spirit…those who live the spiritual life know that through these things they acquire a joy that no one and nothing can take away from them.” (Dynamis 10/20/2021, 10/21/2014, Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou)
“Something has to give between the contemporary obsession with the self that has generated an endless market for books, tapes, CDs, DVDs, seminars, programs, therapies, “self-help” gurus and the like; and the ever-demanding teaching of Our Lord: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself….” [Mark 8:34]. This is not a Buddhist-like call to “self-transcendence” in search of enlightenment. It is Christ’s way of teaching us that to defensively, fearfully, or even idolatrously hold onto the “self” as some sort of autonomous entity will only culminate in the loss of our “life.” To deny such a self-centered way of existence for the sake of the Gospel is to actually “save” our life. “Life” and “self” are very closely equated in this crucial passage. Further, the word “life” is actually the word for “soul.” So biblically, we discover that the word “self” is basically synonymous with the word “soul/life.” (Fr. Stephen Kostoff)
“Many times, discussions of moral issues on TV can leave us perplexed. Everyone claims that they are truly seeking the “Truth” and that they are advocating “appropriate” human behavior. As I occasionally watched discussions between “intellectuals” and other “experts” on contemporary issues - I frequently came away feeling confused…If one were to listen carefully to these experts one would conclude that “Truth” is a very subjective and fleeting concept… we have taken God and His revelation of Wisdom out of the equation…we have made ourselves the center of everything - we have become self-centered - everything has to serve the individual. As a consequence, we have embraced the idea of self-empowerment, where each individual holds to his own truth.” (Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou)
“For the Easterner the goal is nirvana, which means “where there is no wind,” and for us the wind of the Spirit is vital, even when it blows harshly. We do not move from meditation into contemplation, into self-annihilation, into death, in order to be freed from the intolerable wheel of life. No. We move—are moved—into death in order to be discovered, to be loved into truer life by our Maker. To die to self in the prayer of contemplation is to move to a meeting of lovers.” (Madeleine L'Engle)
“Utter denial does not mean depriving ourselves of the necessities of life, nor does it mean we must become paupers and live in rags. Neither does it mean we must lose our individuality, personality and identity. When Jesus speaks of total and utter denial of self, He means we must subordinate our clamoring ego that prohibits us from being the Children of God we were intended to be. Good intentions are not enough. This is why Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (George Nicozisin)
“Lastly comes the concept of following, which is the Lord Jesus’ way of calling us to life-long denial. We die to self one step at a time, with Christ leading us. If we refuse His lead, we rely on our own strength instead and inevitably fail. However, if we seek and apply His will to every decision before us, relying solely on His strength, we “will not taste death till [we] see the kingdom of God present with power” (Mk 9:1).” (Dynamis 9/20/2020)
“Our first decision is to deny our self (Mark 6: 34). What, exactly, constitutes the self that the Lord asks us to deny? At first He speaks in terms of our life (vs. 35), and then a little later in terms of our soul (vss. 36-37). The word being translated – psyche – is the same in both places, however. Elsewhere in the New Testament, psyche is also rendered as “self,” according to some translations (Lk 12:19 NAB). We may thus conclude that “self-denial” entails surrendering control of our entire inward and outward life to God.” (Dynamis 9/20/2020)
“In today's gospel lection, taken from Mark 8:34, Jesus says: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." According to accepted English dictionaries, "deny" means to refuse, reject, repudiate and/or to declare something untrue. If we limit ourselves to these definitions, we do an injustice to the deeper meaning of Christian self-denial. For a clearer picture of what Jesus means, we must return to the original Greek text. The Greek is "aparnisastho" and it has the meaning of renunciation and absolute rejection of whatever is incongruous with Jesus' planned salvation for us.” (George Nicozisin)
“…as Americans we embrace all kinds of discipline when it leads to a positive goal. The two that come most readily to mind are dieting and exercise. We know that for both to be effective, it will take a good deal of discipline. Even fasting, practiced for reasons of good health and “beauty,” is a practice not unknown to the most secular of persons. Then, there are athletes and musicians. Both vocations takes hours of disciplined training, and they may combine this with either dietary restrictions, intense “workout sessions” or simply hours of repetitive practice. We can further add all of the men and women in the armed forces. Basic training is essential, and highly disciplined. Thus, we all know by experience that restraint and self-denial have their positive effects. Yet, this is now completely unmoored from any religious connotations, even though practiced “religiously.” (Fr. Stephen Kostoff)
“Self-denial gets a bad rap because denying ourselves doesn’t come natural due to the infection of sin in us which causes us to associate it with drudgery and unpleasantness. It’s counter-cultural too. The reality is that self-denial is really about gain not loss. We gain who we really are when we deny ourselves out of love for Christ, and with this comes peace and contentment in our soul that no amount of self-indulgence can compete with. However, the paradox is that if we do this with the idea of gaining something as opposed to someone, we lesson the virtue of self-denial. We need to get to the place through prayer and practice where our love for Christ is what compels us and where we deny anything that keeps us from our union with Him.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
“There are three things especially pleasing to God. Illnesses suffered with patience, works done without ostentation and for His love only, and submission to a spiritual elder with perfect self-denial. This last thing will gain the greatest crown.” (Abba Joseph the Thebite)
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