29th Sunday Drink Chalice & Baptism

 The cross is the central theme of today’s readings. The prophet Isaiah from the first reading prophesies about the sufferings of the Jesus, the messiah. The reading said, “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.. ...through his suffering, my servant shall justify many and their guilt he shall bear.” And the Gospel subtly speaks about the passion and death of Jesus as well as the future sufferings of James and John.

Just before James and John asked Jesus if each could sit at the side of Jesus in heaven, Our Lord had told the apostles, “Behold, we are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribe and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles, and they will mock Him, and spit upon Him and scourge Him, and kill Him; after three days He will rise.” Jesus just told His disciples about His upcoming passion and death, and now James and John wanted to get ahead of the other apostles and each sit one on the right and the other on the left of Jesus in heaven, which caused the other apostles to become indignant. They must not understood what Jesus was trying to tell them. Then Our Lord then once again alludes to His upcoming passion and death saying, “Can you drink the cup the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They respond, “We can.” And Jesus then said, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and the baptism with which you are baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

What is Jesus referring to when he is speaking of drinking the “chalice He will drink” and the “baptism He will receive”? In the Old Testament, to drink from the chalice meant to drink of the sufferings. To drink it to the dregs meant to consume all of the cup of suffering out of love for a cause or a person. Jesus reveals His cup of suffering during His agony in the garden. He said to His Father, “Let this chalice pass from me, but not my will, thy will be done.” Our Lord was willing to suffer for His Father and “give His life as a ransom for many”. Jesus was willing to suffer and die for us. He warned the apostles those who want to be first must be the slave of all. Recall St. Paul’s words to the Philippians, “Though He was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God, something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men, and found in human state, humbled Himself and became obedient, even to death on a cross.”

When we hear the word “baptism”, we immediately think of waters flowing over the head of child or an adult which makes them a disciple of Christ. Jesus was not referring to the physical flowing of water over someone. Rather, He was referring to immersion into suffering and the dying to oneself for the sake of others and being immersed in one’s own suffering and blood. His baptism was His immersion into His bloody passion and death. So when James and John said responded saying, “Can you drink the cup that I drink and the be baptized in the baptism, I am to be baptized?” they didn’t understand what He was asking, but out of love for Him wanted to do what ever He asked even to giving up their life and dying for Jesus.

Historically we know James returned to Palestine in 44 AD and drank that chalice with the Lord, in full. He was the first Apostle to be martyred by order of Herod Agrippa. The word martyr means witness. In both his life and his death, James was such a witness.

John was not martyred but they tried to kill him by boiling him in oil, but he was miraculously unharmed. His life was a witness to his discipleship with Jesus as well as his writings of the Gospel of John, the letters of St. John and the Book of Revelation. The Virgin Mary lived with him until She was assumed into heaven.

Today’s readings therefore remind us of the love Jesus has for us and through His suffering and death on the Cross, He would justify many and take upon our guilt. He also wanted His apostles to imitate His humility, His service and His self emptying and even be prepared to die because of it.

Christians—are therefore called to be a witness as a disciple, to drink the cup of suffering and be prepared to even suffer persecution and death for our faith as a witness.

May we not seek to be first or greater than others, but rather seek to serve and not be served, so as to be the slave of all. May the Virgin Mary, pray for us so we will embrace our crosses and stand fast at the foot of the Cross, even unto death, by our immersion into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, it will bring us to the joys of heaven, and though we may not sit at His right or His left in heaven, at least we will be there with Him forever.