Ps 31:5-6,14, 15-16
Mt 20:17-28
“Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?"
When we think about martyrdom, it is not difficult to glamorize our vocation, especially in this day and age. Yes, Lord! I am willing to die for you! I will do anything you ask of me. Thy will be done! If we take a reality check and see that even St. Peter denied Christ three times, it’s not difficult to realize that this vocation is going to be tough. What matters is not so much what will happen in the “end-game” but what happens in between: The daily call to holiness. The route to martyrdom is not a once and done kind of thing, because martyrdom presupposes conviction of faith that is willing to witness through their lives. And yet St. John Vianny kicks it up a notch with the priesthood when he says:
Martyrdom is nothing in comparison [to the sacrifice of the Mass]; it [martyrdom] is the sacrifice that man makes of his life to God; the Mass is the sacrifice that God makes to man of His Body and of His Blood. Oh, how great is a priest! If he understood himself he would die… God obeys him; he speaks two words, and Our Lord comes down from Heaven at his voice, and shuts Himself up in a little Host.If the daily struggle in the Christian call to holiness is already this hard, what does that mean for us who want to be priests, calling God down from Heaven on behalf of the people? Every day, I hope you are thinking about the radical life that you will be embracing. We are all at different places in our discernment, and I can assure you that even us deacons who have made it to the “promised land” of seminary formation have those panic attacks of doubt every once in a while. It’s a good thing. If you don’t approach the priesthood with at least a little fear and trembling you’re probably doing it wrong. The true value and dignity of the office is tremendous and is a mystery that we will never truly understand until we are in heaven. We want to suffer with Christ, take on His yoke, and serve His people with our whole mind, body, and soul. Do not glamorize the priesthood, it doesn’t need it. Christ is the high priest – both the one offering and the victim. Can you, are you willing, and do you live a life worthy enough to do something greater than offering yourself in martyrdom – to offer Christ as well? This isn’t about drinking the kool-aid of some strange cult. The is drinking the blood from the chalice that Christ drinks. When you receive him today, think about what you are receiving and what you will be received into. Can you drink the chalice that I am drink to drink?
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