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The Conditions of Discipleship. 34 He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said[a] to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 8:34–35 This utterance of Jesus challenges all believers to authentic discipleship and total commitment to himself through self-renunciation and acceptance of the cross of suffering, even to the sacrifice of life itself. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it…will save it: an expression of the ambivalence of life and its contrasting destiny. Life seen as mere self-centered earthly existence and lived in denial of Christ ends in destruction, but when lived in loyalty to Christ, despite earthly death, it arrives at fullness of life.