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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Basil of Caesarea
Herein then stands a man's perfection, that he should have his affections hardened, even towards life itself, and have ever about him the answer (ἀποκρίμα.) of death a, that he should by no means trust in himself. (2 Cor. 1:9.) But perfection takes its beginning from the relinquishment of things foreign to it; suppose these to be possessions or vain-glory, or affection for things that profit not.
Cyril of Alexandria
Great and noble leaders provoke the mighty in arms to deeds of valour, not only by promising them the honours of victory, but by declaring that suffering is in itself glorious. Such we see is the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. For He had foretold to His disciples, that He must needs suffer the accusations of the Jews, be slain, and rise again on the third day. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
By the cross, He speaks of an ignominious death, meaning, that if any one will follow Christ, he must not for his own sake flee from even an ignominious death.
Western Saints
Ambrose of Milan
Now our Lord while He ever raises us to look to the future reward of virtue, and teaches us how good it is to despise worldly things, so also He supports the weakness of the human mind by a present recompense. For it is a hard thing to take up the cross, and expose your life to danger and your body to death; to give up what you are, when you wish to be what you are not; and even the loftiest virtue seldom exchanges things present for future. …
Gregory the Dialogist
Because our Lord and Redeemer came into the world as a new man, he gave new precepts to the world. For he set the newness of himself in opposition to our old life nourished in vices. For what did the old, what did the carnal man know except to hold onto his own things, to seize what belongs to others if he could, or to covet them if he could not? But the heavenly physician applies remedies that counteract each and every vice. …
Bede
And let him take up his cross daily, and follow me. For the cross is borne in two ways, when either the body is affected through abstinence, or the soul is afflicted through compassion for a neighbor. Let us consider how Paul bore his cross in both ways, who said: I buffet my body, and bring it into servitude, lest after preaching to others, I myself might be rejected (I Cor. IX). Behold, in the affliction of the body, we heard the cross of the flesh; now in the compassion for the neighbor, let us hear the cross of the mind. …
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