The Cup of Suffering, Affliction and Guilt

Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

When Mediterranean families gather for a meal, the head of the family fills the cups of all at table. Each one is expected to quietly accept without question and drink what the head of the family has given. For these people, the behavior of God is assumed to be like the behavior of the patriarch of the family, the cup became a metaphor to represent one’s lot in life which God has assigned for each person.  

Another aspect of the Mediterranean culture is the fact that behavior is driven by the desire to avoid anything shameful and to pursue honor. When James and John approach Jesus and asked that they be given the seats at his left and right hand when Jesus comes into his kingdom, they are, indeed, pursuing honor. With that honor will also come power. Jesus asks them whether they can drink the cup that he must drink, the cup that God the Father has given to him, a cup that will ask him to give himself up to the most ignominious kind of death that that world knew in order to save God’s people.

The cup of suffering is prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in the short reading that we heard proclaimed this morning. “If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him… through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.” The cup that God assigns to Jesus will be a cup of suffering, affliction, and guilt.

However, as the sacred writer attests in the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus, though tested by sin like all human beings, did not sin. Consequently, the guilt that he bears as he drinks the cup of suffering and affliction is ours – or as the sacred writer puts it, it is the guilt of the many. Because Jesus has wiped away the guilt of the many through his acceptance of the cup that God has given him, we can confidently approach the throne of grace, the throne upon which Jesus assumed upon his Ascension into heaven, to receive mercy and the grace of forgiveness.

The cup of suffering, affliction and guilt enters Jesus’ life on another occasion. At the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”

Today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark is part of the rich tapestry which the sacred author has placed before us when considering the mystery of suffering.  The Gospel of Mark contains more references to suffering and persecution than the other three Gospels combined.  Scholars offer a possible reason for that by focusing attention on the intended audience for this Gospel.  Written for the Jewish converts to Christianity who lived in Rome around the year 70 A.D., the Christian community was facing the beginning of the Roman persecutions which would claim many lives and which would yield many martyrs whose blood would become the foundation of the Roman Church.  The sacred author writes to bolster the community as the cup of suffering is about to be tasted by these converts to faith in Jesus.

When Jesus gathers his apostles around him, he reminds them that true glory comes from suffering, that there is no Resurrection without first enduring the cross, that each human life will experience some sort of suffering.  Perhaps it will be the emotional suffering of losing a loved one.  Some will be asked to endure the pain of physical and chronic illness.  Others will bear the burden of mental illness.  We are all called upon to drink of the cup of suffering.  However, let us not forget that the sacred writer of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus, our High Priest, knows what we are asked to endure because he himself has gone before us and has drunk deeply of the cup of suffering. This is why we are asked to join Jesus by offering up our sufferings in reparation for the sins of others. By joining our sufferings to those of Jesus, we participate in the sacrifice that is offered on the altar of the cross on Mt. Calvary. We must also remember that each time we gather around this altar, it is to commemorate that same sacrifice which Jesus offered once for all. Our participation in that sacrifice renders praise to God and extends the grace of our salvation to the many of our world who have yet to come to know Jesus.