ACC ~ Mark 8 v34a

WHAT SEEMS HARD, LOVE MAKES EASY

AUGUSTINE: How hard and painful does this appear! The Lord has required that “whoever will come after him must deny himself.” [1] But what he commands is neither hard nor painful when he himself helps us in such a way so that the very thing he requires may be accomplished. … For whatever seems hard in what is enjoined, love makes easy. [2] SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 46.1. [3]

[1] Mt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23. The issue is how believers are made able to follow such a weighty, counterintuitive requirement.

[2] HE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL | MARK 1:1-5

[3] Cetedoc 0284, 96.38.584.48; NPNF 1 6:408*; cf. WSA 3 4:29, Sermon 96.1.

HE HELPS EFFECT WHAT HE COMMANDS

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: What he commands is not difficult, since he helps to effect what he commands. … Just as we are lost through loving ourselves, so we are found by denying ourselves. Love of self was the ruin of the first man. If he had not loved himself in the wrong order, he would have been willing to be subject to God, preferring God to self. SERMONS 159. [1]

[1] Cetedoc 1008, 104.159.1.6; FC 47:365-66*.

Mk