Will You Die for Christ? Not a Rhetorical Question

We've all heard about denying ourselves and following Christ. Today, that Gospel passage is often used to suggest that we must put our intangible wants and desires second to following Christ. Taking up our cross is said to mean doing the hard things, even when we don't want to. But when Christ urged the faithful to deny themselves and take up the cross, his words carried a far more weighty obligation: to give one's self up to mockings and scourgings and literally to die for Christ and the Gospel. This call was heeded by the apostles and martyrs until they gained their crowns of victory. Denying ourselves has next to nothing to do with our feelings, emotions or desires. New martyrs live even in this day. Let us not permit our relative material comfort in this land to obscure the true, hard meaning of the Gospel.