What is the chalice or cup of today’s Gospel—the cup that we, too, must drink? This earthen vessel symbolizes Jesus drinking our human life to the full and pouring it out for others. It is Gethsemane’s cup of suffering—the suffering and death Jesus will undergo. “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39). He meets the grotesque brutality visited upon him with fidelity and love, turning it into the victory of God’s love over violence. Can we meet affliction and violence with the fidelity and love of Jesus?  

It is the cup of the Last Supper: “which will be poured out for you.” The accent falls on for you. “Everything is for you,” as the first readings says. This is the cup of compassion—the compassion of the one who comes to serve and give his life as a ransom for others. This self-giving service is as much about how Jesus lives as how he dies. Everything he does is for those to whom he has been sent. Can we meet every person and situation with the compassion of Christ?  

Finally, it is the cup of the Lord’s Supper, shared at every Eucharist. Suffering and compassion are taken up into communion and joy, because Christ is risen, alleluia! This, too, is for us. Those who sow in tears will reap rejoicing. He lives in us and we in him. He is the treasure we hold in earthen vessels “so that his life may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”  

Bob Hurd