Can you drink the cup? (Sabong News)
Author
Manila Bulletin
Date
MARCH 16 2022
Jesus uses the symbol of drinking his cup in accepting his suffering in obedience to the Father’s will. At the Last Supper, he tells his disciples to drink from the cup of his blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:27-28). In Gethsemane, he prays, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26:39). This saving cup would later enter a medieval legend known as the Holy Grail (Chalice), with miraculous powers that provide happiness, eternal youth, or sustenance in infinite abundance. Steven Spielberg’s adventure film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) features Indiana Jones and his father in a race for the Grail against the Nazis.
In answer to the request to have privileges in his Kingdom, Jesus asks the sons of Zebedee about their capacity to drink his cup. Spontaneous and not yet aware of its implication, they answer that they can. Here they are only after a high position, but in the end they will indeed share Jesus’ suffering. The path to glory is the path of service and suffering.
Gospel • MATTHEW 20:17-28
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Then 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 10 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.”
