Feast of St. James the Greater

Can you drink from the cup from which I must drink, our Lord asks St. James?

He says yes—but he really doesn’t understand what he is agreeing to.

Its only years latter when he becomes the first of the twelve to lay down his life for his friend and master, Jesus, when he becomes the first of the Apostles to suffer martyrdom, that he begins to understand what he is being asked for. He begins to understands what the Cup that Christ pours out and drinks  really means.

Today on the Feast of St. James, [the patron of this Church], I invite you to consider this cup. After all what is the cup about which the Lord is speaking if not the same chalice from which we drink each Mass—the chalice of the saving blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ?

As Catholics we believe that when we receive the body we receive the blood and when we receive the blood we receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. So whether or not we actually receive from the cup of salvation we who are called to the Altar of God—by virtue of our baptism do indeed drink from this Cup, this Chalice of which our Lord speaks today.

So what does it mean, to drink from this cup and to receive from this altar?

Christ is quite dire about the significance of the cup from which He drinks, alluding to the offering of the last supper and the sacrifice of the Cross which it entails. The cup which Christ drinks from is the cup of sacrifice the sacrifice of all His sufferings, all His persecutions, all His disappointments, loneliness, and pains. It is the cup which symbolizes and then actually becomes the gift of His whole life in thanksgiving to the Father. And so to drink from the Cup of Christ means to participate in his priestly ministry.

To offer a sacrifice to God, not of rams or goats not of material goods but a sacrifice of your very self. As Christians each one of us is called to be a priest to offer sacrifice to God. I think we often forget this, so I will say it again, each one of us is called to be a priest! This is the vocation and responsibility
that we all receive at baptism. Each and every one of us is asked by our God to offer with Christ our trials and tribulations, our crosses together with the passion and death of Christ for the sanctification of the whole world.

This is what we are doing when we receive communion, we are giving this gift of thanksgiving and love to the Father. In turn we drink from the Cup—completing the sacrifice and receiving from God the strength and courage we need to offer ourselves in Love more fully each day of our life.

In the Gospel the mother of the sons of Zebbedi asks that her sons sit at the right and left hand of Jesus at the places of honor in God’s kingdom. Jesus replies asking, can you drink from my cup? Thus He is teaching us that honor and eternal happiness in Heaven—as well as happiness on earth as far as it is possible comes from following the vocation and path that God calls us to, it comes from being a priest and offering sacrifice

But this vocation takes different forms in the lives of different people. All of us are called to a baptismal priesthood, all of us are called to offer our own sufferings and sorrows as sacrifices to the Father. But we do this in different ways:

Some as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers sacrificing so much for the good of the family, for the good of our spouse and of our Children. Anyone who has been married or had children will tell you that there are great joys that come from family life but also great sorrows and difficulties. It is in these joys and sorrows that the Lord calls married people to exercise their baptismal priesthood. He invites them to offer up both the good and the bad joys and sorrows, of family life, as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God

Likewise, those who are single, especially those who make a commitment to live their life in celibate chastity for the sake of the Kingdom. Are not so much spared from the difficulties of family life but invited to offer up the difficulties that come from celibacy for those around them—to become spiritually fruitful. In this way they bear spiritual children as the fruit of their prayer and work in the world.

Finally some, a select few, are called to serve the people by offering up as a sacrifice not just their own sacrifices But by collecting up the sacrifices of the whole Church and combining our sacrifices with the one sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross, as priests.

As we hear in the Epistle letter, St. Paul tells us we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Our own sacrifices are gifts we offer to God, but they are gifts made out of the clay of this world, the clay of our lives and so our savior gives his life, to us, so that together with the earthen clay gift of our self we can give God a truly fitting gift, the gift of His Son.

This is what the priest does for the people of God, he blesses and sanctifies, purifies and prepares the people of God, by means of the sacraments of Jesus Christ so that each day, and most especially at the end of our life we can offer our self to God, bound together with the sacrifice of His Son as a truly fitting gift to the Father.

So what is the point of all this talk of sacrifice? What is the point of the cup of Jesus Christ which we are invited by our Lord to drink today?

The point is this—we are all called to know, love, and serve God here and this world for a time, so that we can love and be with him and forever in heaven. Just as the mother of James desires for her sons. However, to love God means to have a grateful heart, to take everything, both the good, and that which seems bad, from God humbly and in a spirit of gratitude.

Accepting it in love however, we necessarily desire to thank our God. Sacrifice, is the way we do this, it is the way we say thank you to God for all he has done for us. When we drink the cup of Christ, when we offer the Father our whole life, we fill ourselves up with love for the Father, and we draw ourselves closer to Him, in joyful expectation of that day when he will draw us to Himself.

Our sanctification, and our happiness both in this life and in the life to come depends on priests. It depends on our High Priest Jesus Christ, who transforms us, by the ministry of his annointed priests and bishops, giving each of us a priestly heart that will one day merit salvation and eternal life with God. We are a priestly people, thus as we approach the cup of Jesus Christ, let’s ask the Lord to give us a grateful heart a priestly heart. Let’s ask him to show us, and to help us accept His plan for us. And with a priestly heart, let us pray in the words of the Psalmist

What recompense can I make to the Lord
For all the good things He has given me.
The cup of Salvation I will raise
And I will call upon the Name of the Lord.

St. James, Apostle and Martyr, pray for us!