Drink the chalice of the Lord

La madre de los Zebedeos pide a Jesús que sus hijos se sienten uno a cada lado en el Reino, a lo que Jesús le responde que lo importante es el compromiso por el Reino y no el puesto que ocuparán. ¿Qué compromiso? “Beber el cáliz que Él va a beber” (Mc 10,3-39).

¿Qué le quiso decir?

• In the AT when someone died, the family offered the deceased's direct family a funeral banquet, after the grave, as a sign of “consolation” and to say that they were offered for everyone who was missing.

In special circumstances, it was possible to see a cup that everyone drank, indicating family identity, sharing and friendship between them.

According to the psalms, drinking the cup means: gratitude, for lifting the cup indicates a gift to proclaim the benefits of the Lord and to say to people “God is marvelous”

• In the evangelism, drinking the cup means, accepting the alliance and living it, and deciding, rejecting all the gods that we have made in our measure and accepting Jesus as the only Lord of our lives. It also means being capable of passing through the passion and dying like Jesus.
• In San Pablo, drinking the Señor's cup means being in tune with Jesus, with his life, with his works, with his ideals and with his sufferings.
• In the Apocalipsis, drinking the cup is accepting the judgment that God has to condemn all the pagan aberrations of sin, not to contaminate himself with the ideas of this world, not to follow his inspirations and therefore to denounce the evil that exists in the world.

Commitments to drink El Caliz del Señor

1. Have an act of solidarity, supporting others, sharing their joys and sadness, their joys and their sorrows, which Jesus can share with others.
2. Thanking God for all that we are and have, put us all in the spirit of El, who is our creator and does not believe in us “small dioses” and that we are only the “instruments” of God.
3. Reject the false images that we have created of God to justify our conduct and abandon the “dioses”: money, fame, place, intending to have more than others… for which we are capable of sacrificing everything like family and friendship to achieve it.
4. Asociarnos a la pasion de Jesús con nuestros pains y sufrimientos, con nuestros problema y fatigue, con nuestras incomrensiones y strecheces y viviendo, como Jesús, en Gethsemane, en total obediencia al Padre: “departa de mí este caliz, pero se no se haga mi voluntad. sin la tuya”   
5. Share Jesus' ideals of justice and fraternity and follow their hearts: always do good, heal the oppressed, give sight to the sky, heal the sore, give relief to the shelter and worry about the poor and needy so that everyone can live with dignity, as children of God.

Therefore, drinking the Señor's cup means:

• Being other Christians on earth
• Let Christ walk with us along the path of life
• Let Christ know for us the marvels that God has done
• Letting Christ love us hasta come to say like San Pablo: “Vivo yo, más no vivo yo, es Cristo quien vive en mí.

Drinking the Señor's cup commits us to being capable of living the life that Christ lived, the delivery of Christ, the solidarity of Christ, and the obedience to the Father of Christ.

(Fr. Paulino CPPS)