Happy Lord's Day: Glory and Suffering

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him,

"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 

He replied, "What do you wish me to do for you?" 

They answered him, "Grant that in your glory

we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." 

Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. 

Can you drink the cup 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 cup 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." 

When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. 

Jesus summoned them and said to them,

"You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles

lord it over them,

and their great ones make their authority over them felt. 

But it shall not be so among you.

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;

whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. 

For the Son of Man did not come to be served

but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mk 10:35-45

I am the ten. If someone were to have the gall to ask for such a favor from the Lord Himself, my first reaction would be annoyance, too. James and John exhibited incredible boldness, to the point of irrationality. Jesus had just predicted his Passion for the third time, and yet James and John immediately ask to “sit one at your right and the other at your left” without hesitation. 

I wonder if James and John knew that to do so would mean enduring a thousand sufferings, exercising obedience even until death. Based upon Jesus’ response, it seems as though the brothers sought only the glory of the Lord; they failed to recognize the responsibility and suffering that were required of them to earn such a reward. 

Yet even more astounding to me than the blind request of the brother disciples was the reaction of the other ten. They, too, had heard Jesus predict his Passion. They, too, chose to ignore his suffering and focus instead on the glory  for which James and John had so boldly asked. They became jealous, perhaps, of the two brothers who thought they were so close with Jesus to ask to dwell in eternal glory with him. 

I pray that God would give me the grace to beg so ardently for suffering, even when I know the intensity of that suffering. I do not think that the disciples intended to beg for suffering, but Jesus offers it to them nonetheless: “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.” 

A heart of the world rejects suffering. Too often, I find myself avoiding even the tiniest displeasure; I tend to have that worldly heart. This summer, I begrudgingly read St. Thérèse’s autobiographical Story of a Soul. I was shocked by her desire for suffering and by her writings, which inextricably intertwined love and suffering. She says: 

Do not believe that you can love without suffering, without suffering a great deal... It is our poor nature that is there! And it is not there for nothing! ... This is our wealth, our livelihood! ... It is so precious that Jesus came to our earth in order to make it his own. Let us suffer bitterly, without courage! "Jesus suffered with sadness! And without sadness does the soul suffer!?" And we would like to suffer generously, nobly!... Celine! What an illusion! that would be!" (LT 89, 26. April, 1889)

Not only are we opposed to suffering, wishing to surpass it in favor of glory; we allow ourselves to suffer only when we suffer “nobly,” that is, without complaint and with courage. How silly are we in the eyes of Jesus! Like James and John, we want only the rewards of suffering. We fail to recognize the suffering itself as the means by which we can climb to Heaven. 

Just prior to this Gospel, Jesus called his disciples together to tell them that “[T]he 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 who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.” The disciples did not desire condemnation, mockery, ridicule, scourging, and death. In their shortsightedness and humanity, they did not see the merits of suffering because it is painful. Through Jesus’ pain, however—in Jesus’ moment of ultimate defeat—he redeemed the world. 

He wishes for us to participate in his suffering so that we might know life in him. 

When we reject suffering, we reject all that follows. What a gift it is to be able to participate in his suffering so that he might transform us! 

Deliver me, Jesus, from the desires for earthly glory and material success. Help me to choose to suffer, not in vain, but alongside you on the cross. Transform my heart in suffering and grant me peace and joy in your name. Amen. 

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Rebecca Vodola is a sophomore English major and an intent to Totus Tuus Maria household. She hails from Connecticut, where she enjoys hiking with her family. Rebecca loves drinking tea, carrying on Italian family traditions, going to morning Mass, and reading. Her favorite books include The Phantom Tollbooth, the Harry Potter series, The Book Thief, and Hard Times, but she reads anything and everything, including receipts on the kitchen table. Some of her favorite saints are St. John Paul II, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, and Our Lady Undoer of Knots. Rebecca learns more about our beautiful Catholic faith each day. You can find out more about her here.