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Gospel: Matthew 20: 20-28
The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons
and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.
He said to her,
“What do you wish?”
She answered him,
“Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.”
Jesus said in reply,
“You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
They said to him, “We can.”
He replied,
“My chalice you will indeed drink,
but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at the two brothers.
But Jesus summoned them and said,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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“Can you drink the cup that I will drink?” Jesus questions his Apostles in today’s Gospel.
“Of course!” they say without understanding.
The Apostles are imagining themselves sharing a gilded chalice with the Lord at a royal banquet in Jerusalem. They believe that Jesus will soon be crowned king, and the Apostles will constitute his inner circle.
In a sense, they’re both right and wrong.
The Apostles are right in the sense that they will drink from the “cup” of the Lord. But this mysterious “cup” is a reference to his suffering and death – not an earthly coronation as they are hoping for.
We hear a final reference to this “cup” in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus prays, “Father, let this cup pass from me. But not as I will, but your will be done.”
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The first Apostle to drink from the “cup” of the Lord’s suffering and death will be the Apostle James, whose feast day we celebrate today.
James was beheaded by the Roman Emperor Agrippa in the year 44 AD, about 10 years after the resurrection of Jesus.
Soon the others will follow. Matthew will preach the Gospel as far as Ethiopia, where he’ll be martyred. Some believe Thomas made it as far as India. Of course, Peter and Paul will die in Rome.
The only Apostle, aside from Judas, who will not die a physical martyrdom is the Apostle John, who spent his final years in exile on the Greek island of Patmos. But even that – living in exile – is a type of spiritual martyrdom.
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What might the story of the Apostles say to us today?
Often, we imagine our futures, much like they did. And quite often, we’re wrong. Once we learn how to surrender and drink the “cup” of the Lord, our life is no longer our own; it’s placed in the hands of Jesus.
God directs our path in ways – and to places – we would never have imagined. But our reward will always be the same: a seat in the kingdom of God with Saint James and the others, where, “neither moth nor decay can destroy.”
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Image credits: (1) Christ Receives the Chalice from an Angel, Lombard School Artist 17th Century (2) Ibid. (3) Ligonier Ministries