Marcos 9
Gregory of Nyssa · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Marcos 9:35
Let vanity be unknown among you. Let simplicity and harmony and a guileless attitude weld the community together. Let each remind himself that he is not only subordinate to the brother at his side, but to all. If he knows this, he will truly be a disciple of Christ. — ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE 8.1
Marcos 9:41
God never asks his servants to do what is impossible. The love and goodness of his Godhead is revealed as richly available. It is poured out like water upon all. God furnishes to each person according to his will the ability to do something good. None of those seeking to be saved will be lacking in this ability, given by the one who said: "whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward." — ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE 8.1
Marcos 9:48
Nor, too, does anything which afflicts the senses here equal in torment the future life of sinners. Even if we denote some of those torments by terms familiar to us here, the difference is not slight. When you hear the word "fire," you have been taught to think of it differently from ordinary fire, since a new factor is added. For that fire is not quenched, while experience has devised many ways to quench the fire we know. And there is a great difference between fire which is quenched and that which cannot be put out. They are, therefore, different, and not the same. Then again, when a person hears the word "worm," the analogy must not be misapplied directly from the creature we know to the eternal. For the addition of the phrase "that does not die" suggests the thought that this worm is not simply the creature we know. — ADDRESS ON RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 40