Starting from Luke 9
23 Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily[k] and follow me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?
Again on the lose life thing:
John 12
23 [a]Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 **Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life[c] loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.
So something worldly dies, and something greater rises up.
You do it by entering the kingdom. Lots is said about that. But the most useful term for me is born of the spirit. This happens when the flesh dies. Either by physical death, or by spiritual death which can even be dramatic like Dark Night of the Soul by St John, where we do purgatory’s work while still alive. We mortify our passions and desires of the flesh. There are lots of scriptures for this and I don’t want to look them all up but I’ll leave a couple here.
Anyway the ultimate situation is to be born of the spirit, thus enter into the kingdom, and thus produce Good Fruit – that being described in Gal 5:22-23 as “fruit of the spirit.” You shall know them by their fruits. If I am born of the spirit, then I will produce the fruit of the spirit whether I’m in comfortable situations or not. Like the peace of Christ is not like the world gives – temporary conditions of comfort, compared with peace that lasts us through both comfort and great trials. Like He trained in the desert to learn to keep His dignity in the face of great physical anguish and spiritual temptations.
MS**
