“HE WHO DOES NOT TAKE HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME” Matthew 10:38

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

"HE WHO DOES NOT TAKE HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME
IS NOT WORTHY OF ME" [Matthew 10:38]

"And why do I speak, He says, of friends and kinsmen? Even if it is your own life which you prefer to my love, your place is far from my disciples…In Deuteronomy …He says, ‘Who said to his father, and to his mother, I have not seen you, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, and his own sons he disowned: he kept Your oracles’ (Deuteronomy 33:9). And if Paul gives many directions touching parents, commanding us to obey them in all things, do not marvel, for only in those things he means us to obey that do not hinder godliness. For indeed it is a sacred duty to render them all other honors…

Luke says ‘If any man comes to Me, and does not hate his father, mother, wife, and children …even his own life, he cannot be my disciple’ …Nothing is closer than his life to any man …For why are you willing to despise your life? Because you love it? Then for that very reason despise it, and so you will benefit it in the highest degree and do the part of one who loves it …Do you see what mighty persuasions He used, and how He opened to them the houses of the whole world? Yes, He signified that men are their debtors; first saying, ‘The workman is worthy of his hire,’ secondly by sending them froth having nothing…to instruct you that not for the worthiness of the visitor, but for the purpose of him who gives welcome, is His reward appointed. For though He speaks hee of Prophets, the righteous men…elsewhere He bids men receive the veriest outcasts and punishes those who fail to do so" (Cf. Matthew. 25:45). Saint John Chrysostom. Homily XXXV on Matthew 10:3-5).

The Holy Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians writes: "But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).

Truly this symbol is thought despicable, but it is so in the world’s reckoning, and among men; in heaven and among the faithful is the highest glory. Poverty too is despicable , but it is our boast; and to be cheaply thought of by the public is a matter of laughter to them, but we are elated by it. So too the Cross is our boast…And what is the boast of the Cross? That Christ for my sake took on Him the form of a slave, and bore His sufferings for me, the slave, the enemy, the unfeeling one; He even so loved me as to give Himself up to a curse for me. What can be comparable to this! …Let us then not be ashamed of His unspeakable tenderness; He was not ashamed of being crucified for your sake, and will you be ashamed to confess His infinite solicitude? …

"By whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." [Galatians 6:14).

What he here calls the world is not heaven nor earth, but the affairs of life, the praise of men, retinues, glory, wealth, and all such things as have a show of splendour. To me these things are dead…Nor was he content with the former putting to death, but added another, saying, ‘and I to the world,’ in this way implying a double putting to death, and saying, They are dead to me, and I to them, neither can they captivate and overcome me…Nothing can be more blessed than this putting to death, for it is the foundation of the blessed life …Observe the power of the Cross, to what a pitch it has set him far above the Old Dispensation …for the Cross has persuaded him who was willing to be slain…This, our rule of life, he calls ‘a new creature,’ both on account of what is past, and of what is to come; of what is past, because our soul, which had grown old with oldness of sin, has been all at once renewed by baptism, as if it had been created again. Therefore we require a nw and heavenly rule of life..and seek the new things of grace. For those who pursue these things will enjoy peace and amity, and may properly be called by the name of ‘Israel. (Saint John Chrysostom. Commentary on Galatians. Chapter 6.

__________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George