[ Today's Readings ]
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?"
They said to him, "We can."
If we really knew what drinking the chalice entailed we wouldn't be so quick to respond. But we're so interested in sitting at the right and the left of Jesus in his kingdom that we are able to keep continue to follow Jesus toward his crucifixion and death. On the one hand, it is good to keep our eyes on the prize. On the other, if we don't legitimately count the cost we are more likely to be scattered by the scandal of the cross.
The Father is preparing a place for us. We do indeed have to drink the chalice that Jesus drinks in order to come at last to that place. It is helpful to acknowledge in advance that this suffering is a part of the plan that the Father allows. It is not something that earns us a privileged place at the table. But it does conform our hearts to the heart of Jesus.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
We can become like Jeremiah who speaks on behalf of a people who ultimately repay his good with evil. We can be like Jesus who is scorned and crucified by the ones he came to save. We should not drink the chalice of suffering for ourselves alone. It is meant to be offered for the salvation of others, to turn away God's wrath from them.
When we trust in God's plan we are not scattered when suffering comes. We trust in him to save us even as we offer it for others.
You will free me from the snare they set for me,
for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
As good of an advocate as the mother of the sons of Zebedee is for her sons we have an even better one in our heavenly mother Mary. Let us ask her to ask her son to bring us at last to the seats at his table in the kingdom which the Father has prepared for us.
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