+ Our gospel passage today challenges us all quite a bit: first, Jesus
tells the Twelve that he must go to
Jerusalem to suffer much and then to die by crucifixion and then be raised
again on the third day. [Usually when Jesus says this: they hear the suffering
part, but just don’t quite understand what this “resurrection” is all about –
but they will learn – they will learn!]
In
the next paragraph however, Jesus makes it clear to the mother of
James and John that if suffering and even death was a part of his lot, so too
would it be for those chosen to be his best friends and emissaries in the
world! In fact, James would be the first of the Twelve to die a martyr’s death
as a witness to the new-born faith! But as for sitting next to Jesus in the
kingdom – that was not even up to Jesus to assign – but his heavenly Father:
who is in charge of everything anyway!
This
all means that we, as members of Christ’s Body, the Church, need
to be willing to suffer and even to die for him as well, in many ways, small
and great: because it is the way modeled by Jesus, it is the way recommended by
Jesus, it is the way that has truth and life-everlasting attached securely to
it!
My
trust is in you, O Lord: I say, “You are my God.” In your hands is my destiny;
rescue me from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.
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