Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
They said to him, ‘We can.”
Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am 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.”
(Mk 10:32-45)
Presumption is always a temptation—even for the Twelve. Of course, the other Ten were furious with James and John . . . because they hadn’t thought to ask for the seats of honor. Christian ambition is in us all. But when the Lord responds to the two brothers: “You will drink the chalice that I drink, you will be baptized with my baptism” we begin to understand that they are clueless about what they have asked for. I remember when I showed a list of the popes to a non-Catholic lady who was inquiring about the church. The lady asked me, “What’s that capital M after their names?” I answered, “That means the person was martyred.” And you know, that list of the first popes . . . almost all of them have a capital M after their names—that’s what it meant to be the shepherd of the flock . . . as Jesus says, “the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Saint Philip Neri was known for his compassion and ministry to the poor and is called the “apostle of Rome.”
