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.” (Mt 20:17-28)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030823.cfm
The chalice Jesus is speaking of is the chalice of his suffering. But the audacity of the request to sit at the right and left of Jesus in glory and when Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” the glibness of the response: “Sure, we can!” Then the others get angry with James and John because they didn’t think to ask Jesus first. So the poor Lord has to sit them all down and give them “a learning” as we say in the South.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Wednesday, Week II, Lent
