Book of Jeremiah 18,18-20.
"Come," they said, "let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And so, let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word." Heed me, O LORD, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.
Psalms 31(30),5-6.14.15-16.
Free me from the net they have set for me, for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, LORD, faithful God.
I hear the whispers of the crowd; terrors are all around me. They conspire against me; they plot to take my life.
But I trust in you, LORD; I say, "You are my God."
My times are in your hands; rescue me from my enemies, from the hands of my pursuers.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 20,17-28.
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve (disciples) aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, 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." Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, "What do you wish?" She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom." Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can." He replied, "My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left (, this) is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Discourse on Psalm 121
In the “Psalms of the Ascents” the psalmist longs for Jerusalem and says that he wishes to go up. Go up where? Is he trying to reach the sun, the moon, the stars? No. In heaven we find the everlasting Jerusalem where the angels, our fellow citizens, have their habitation (Heb 12,22). Here on this earth we are in exile, far away from them. Along exile’s road we sigh; once in the city, we tremble for joy.
While on our journey, we find companions who have already seen the city and encourage us to run towards it. They have taken hold of the psalmist’s cry of joy: “I rejoiced when they said to me: “We will go up to the house of the Lord,” (Ps 122[121].1)… “We will go up to the house of the Lord”: let us run, then; let us run, since we are to reach the house of the Lord. Let us run without wearying; there is no weariness above. Let us run to the house of the Lord and tremble for joy with those who have summoned us, those who beheld our homeland first. They cry out from afar to those who follow them: “We will go up to the house of the Lord. Step up! Run!” The apostles have seen that house and call out to us: “Make haste! Run! Follow us! We will go up to the house of the Lord!”
And what does each of us reply? “I rejoice in those who said to me: We will go up to the house of the Lord.” I rejoiced in the prophets, I rejoiced in the apostles, for they have all said to us: “We are going up to the house of the Lord.”
THE CUP
"Such is the case with the Son of Man Who has come, not to be served by others, but to serve, to give His own life as a ransom for the many." –Matthew 20:28
Jesus asked James, John, and their mother: " 'Can you drink of the cup I am to drink of?' 'We can,' they said" (Mt 20:22). They did not understand what cup Jesus was referring to, but they assumed they could drink it. James did eventually drink of the cup of martyrdom (Acts 12:2) and John the cup of being persecuted (Rv 1:9). However, they refused this cup at first. James and John were chosen by Jesus to be with Him in His agony in the garden of Gethsemani, but as Jesus suffered and prayed to His Father about "the cup," James and John fell asleep (see Mt 26:38-40). Later that evening, James, John, and the other apostles refused to drink of the cup of suffering by abandoning Jesus as he was arrested (Mk 14:50).
This Lent, Jesus is asking us: "Can you drink of the cup?" (Mt 20:22) We know that by the grace of our Baptisms we can and must drink of the cup of suffering and of crucified love. Yet will we decide and are we deciding to drink of the cup? Naturally, no one wants to suffer. Supernaturally, however, love is more important than avoiding pain. May the love of Christ impel us to live no longer for ourselves (2 Cor 5:14-15) but to suffer and die for Him. "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life" for Jesus (see Jn 15:13).
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