From: Mark 8:34-9:1
Christian Renunciation (Continuation)
[1] And He said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who
will not taste death before they see the Kingdom of God come with power.”
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Commentary:
35. “Life”: in the original text and the New Vulgate the word literally means “soul.”
But here, as in many other cases, “soul” and “life” are equivalent. The word “life”
is used, clearly, in a double sense: earthly life and eternal life, the life of man here-
on earth and man’s eternal happiness in Heaven. Death can put an end to earthly
life, but it cannot destroy eternal life (cf. Matthew 10:28), the life which can only
be given by Him who brings the dead back to life.
Understood in this way, we can grasp the paradoxical meaning of our Lord’s
phrase: whoever wishes to save his (earthly) life will lose his (eternal) life. But
whoever loses his (earthly) life for Me and the Gospel, will save his (eternal) life.
What, then, does saving one’s (earthly) life mean? It means living this life as if
there were no other — letting oneself be controlled by the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life (cf. 1 John 2:16). And losing one’s (earthly)
life means mortifying, by continuous ascetical effort, this triple concupiscence —
that is, taking up one’s cross (verse 34)—and consequently seeking and savoring
the things that are God’s and not the things of the earth (cf. Colossians 3:1-2).
36-37. Jesus promises eternal life to those who are willing to lose earthly life for
His sake. He has given us example: He is the Good Shepherd who lays down
His life for His sheep (John 10:15); and He fulfilled in His own case what He said
to the Apostles on the night before He died: “Greater love has no man than this
that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
38. Each person’s eternal destiny will be decided by Christ. He is the Judge who
will come to judge the living and the dead (Matthew 16:27). The sentence will de-
pend on how faithful each has been in keeping the Lord’s commandments — to
love God and to love one’s neighbor, for God’s sake. On that day Christ will not
recognize as His disciple anyone who is ashamed to imitate Jesus’ humility and
example and follow the precepts of the Gospel for fear of displeasing the world or
worldly people: he has failed to confess by his life the faith which he claims to
hold. A Christian, then, should never be ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16);
he should never let himself be drawn away by the worldliness around him; rather
he should exercise a decisive influence on his environment, counting on the help
of God’s grace. The first Christians changed the ancient pagan world. God’s arm
has not grown shorter since their time (cf. Isaiah 59:1). Cf. Matthew 10:32-33 and
note on same.
9:1. The coming of the Kingdom of God with power does not seem to refer to the
second, glorious coming of Jesus at the end of time (the Parousia); it may, rather,
indicate the amazing spread of the Church in the lifetime of the Apostles. Many
of those present here will witness this. The growth and spread of the Church in
the world can be explained only by the divine power God gives to the mystical bo-
dy of Christ. The Transfiguration of our Lord, which is recounted in the next pas-
sage, is a sign, given to the Apostles, of Jesus’ divinity and of the divine powers
which He will give His Church.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
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First reading |
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James 2:14-24,26 © |
Take the case, my brothers, of someone who has never done a single good act but claims that he has faith. Will that faith save him? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty’, without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead.
This is the way to talk to people of that kind: ‘You say you have faith and I have good deeds; I will prove to you that I have faith by showing you my good deeds – now you prove to me that you have faith without any good deeds to show. You believe in the one God – that is creditable enough, but the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Do realise, you senseless man, that faith without good deeds is useless. You surely know that Abraham our father was justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar? There you see it: faith and deeds were working together; his faith became perfect by what he did. This is what scripture really means when it says: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was counted as making him justified; and that is why he was called ‘the friend of God.’
You see now that it is by doing something good, and not only by believing, that a man is justified. A body dies when it is separated from the spirit, and in the same way faith is dead if it is separated from good deeds.
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Psalm |
Psalm 111:1-6 © |
Happy the man who fears the Lord,
who takes delight in all his commands.
His sons will be powerful on earth;
the children of the upright are blessed.
Riches and wealth are in his house;
his justice stands firm for ever.
He is a light in the darkness for the upright:
he is generous, merciful and just.
The good man takes pity and lends,
he conducts his affairs with honour.
The just man will never waver:
he will be remembered for ever.
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Gospel Acclamation |
1Jn2:5 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Whenever anyone obeys what Christ has said,
God’s love comes to perfection in him.
Alleluia!
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Or |
Jn15:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
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Gospel |
Mark 8:34-9:1 © |
Jesus called the people and his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. What gain, then, is it for a man to win the whole world and ruin his life? And indeed what can a man offer in exchange for his life? For if anyone in this adulterous and sinful generation is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’ And he said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.’