The question that is asked of James and John is a hard one. And it is one that Christ asks of all who are baptized into His passion and seek to call themselves a Christian. In addition, it is also the most overlooked. So many see the cross of Christ as something solely belonging to Christ. Many times, we seek to place all of our crosses on Him with the expectation that He will carry them for us and remove from our lives the instances of suffering that occur.
Many self-proclaimed Christians who seek the comforts of this world shy away from the cross because they believe that Christ would never expect such an act of immolation from them. But, if you have been baptized into Christ, He asks the very same question of you and me that He did of the Sons of Thunder:
“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…’” Matthew 20:22-23.
But what is this chalice? The gospel for today reveals it in the prior exchange. Our Lord reveals to His apostles what awaits Him in Jerusalem:
“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.” Matthew 20:18-19.
This is His chalice. He goes willingly to the cross. This is the chalice that He calls James and John to. He likewise calls each of His apostles to drink deeply from the chalice of the passion. By the grace of God, eleven of the apostles go to their martyrdoms, while the final one experiences the sufferings of a white martyrdom. But each drink of His chalice.
We are invited by Christ to drink of His chalice as well. The Lenten season is a beautiful way that we can drink deeply from His sufferings in the form of the sacrifices that we embrace. There is no other way in which we can be His followers. To run from the cross is to run from Christ. The more we deny ourselves and the comforts that the world tempts us to, the more we are conformed to Him. He shows us how to drink from this same chalice in the Garden of Gethsemane:
“Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.’ And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’”1
Humility. Obedience. Abnegation. These are the virtues that are drained from the chalice of Christ.
Let this question be our meditation:
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?
And let our response be:
Not my will but yours be done.
For more from Dr. McGovern, visit his Substack at A Thomist, Dedicated to the Theological tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. Exploring Thomas’ Spiritual Theology and topics in Christology and Mariology.
Matthew 26:38-39.