Bear Your Cross. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it

17.  You are  greatly  blessed  when men hate you,  avoid you,  treat you injuriously, and revile your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and exult with joy, because a great reward  is reserved for you in heaven, for thus their fathers treated the prophets. (Lk. 6:22-23)

18. Calling the people unto him with his disciples, he said to them: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, for he who wants to save himself  will be lost, and he who loses himself out of love for me and the Gospel will be saved. In truth, what good would it do a man to gain the whole world but lose himself? (Mk. 8:34-36; Lk. 9:23-25; Mt. 10:39; Jn. 12:24-25)

19. Rejoice, said Jesus, when others hate you and persecute you on account of me, for you will be rewarded in heaven because of it. These words may be translated as: Be happy when, because of their ill will toward you, others provide you with an opportunity to test the sincerity of your faith, because the evil they do to you results in your benefit. Therefore, mourn them because of their blindness, and do not curse them.

Then, he adds: “Let those who want to follow me take up  their  cross”; that  is, they  should courageously bear the tribulations that their faith will engender, because those who want to save their life and their possessions by denying me will lose the advantages of the kingdom of heaven, whereas those who have lost everything in this world – even their life – for the triumph of the truth will receive in the future life the reward for their courage, perseverance and self-denial. But to those who sacrifice heavenly possessions to earthly pleasures, God says: You have already received your recompense.