Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Perhaps we never really understood this word because you thought James and John had a bad intention. Maybe we thought that those who are at the Lord’s side are the ones with power. However, if we make a slightly more detailed look not only at the question that James and John are asking, but also the response of Jesus to their further questions. We realize that they were clear on what it meant to be in the Lord’s kingdom. They ask, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you?” Jesus had just finished in the gospel before this one saying, at least a third time, that he is going to Jerusalem and will be handed to the chief priests and scribes, who will condemn him to death and in three days he will rise.
At those other times, James and John were discussing who was the most important and even Peter objected to what he said and did not understand what Jesus said. But James and John seemed to understand it. Listen to what they said, “Grant that in your glory we may sit…” The word glory is very important because they are speaking of the glory of God and they request to sit at the right and the other at the left, in his glory. But the question is, is it bad that they want to be in the glory of Jesus Christ. Is it a bad desire that they want to be close to him and want to share in this glory? Is it a bad action? I think not.
It seems that they have understood what is the glory of God because Jesus also asks them if they want to be baptized with the same baptism that he would undergo? They sense that they will be crushed as Christ will be and offered as a sin offering, as we hear in the first reading. James and John respond that they are willing to suffer. They say, “We can.” Jesus agrees with them, but who sits at his right and his left hand are not his to give. How I wish that today we would have the same desire as James and John to be with Christ in his glory. What is Christ’s glory or God’s glory? The glory of man is what makes him great. To give an example of something that gives glory, watch the SpaceX super heavy rocket-booster that was ‘caught’ in the arms or ‘chopsticks’ of the launching pad. That is the glory of man of the scientists who did this on the first try.
What is the glory of God that made him great? It was Christ on the cross, loving you! This is the glory of God. Then, we want to be part of this, at your side, these apostles are saying. There is an ancient hymn that says God reigns from the wood of the cross. In the cross God reigns. The early Christians understood this very well. They showed the resurrected Christ, the Risen Christ, on the cross, not a dead one. Some people today don’t understand this because Christ died on the cross. However, the cross is the entrance to the resurrection. It is the light. It puts us in the resurrection. It is a wonderful word for you and for me today.
What is it that makes you suffer, what death do you have today that doesn’t make any sense to you, that destroys you in so many ways? Brothers and Sisters, Christ is risen; he has defeated death, that same death that is killing you. He is the only one who can get you out of that death. You and I cannot do it. He did it. This is his glory; this is his kingdom. Then who sat at his right and his left on this throne of glory? There were two thieves, this place was reserved for them. One is called good and the other, bad. They were bad guys. They had robbed, killed, violated others, lied. Both were bad, from a human point of view.
The one they call the good thief is misnamed. He welcomes forgiveness and the other one does not welcome it. Neither one of them deserves the kingdom of God, none are deserving of heaven. Do you want to enter heaven? One day you will enter heaven so look at the beautiful word that Jesus gives us. He says, if you want, you will go to heaven. Is it up to you to enter heaven? Absolutely, not! It depends on another, on Jesus Christ. He will lift you up, he is the one who will carry you, that raises you up. It depends on him. He is telling you that if you want, he will take care of it. Then, he will take you there. If you want to experience heaven in this Eucharist, in your life, in your work, in your family, in your marriage, in your loneliness, in your sickness, in the things that destroy you, Jesus says, I am giving you this possibility. Receive this love of Christ, welcome him because he gives his life as an offering for many.
Who is Jesus exhorting in this gospel, James and John, or to the other ten apostles? It is the other ten who do not understand, not James and John. The others were envious of the two brothers, thinking that they wanted to be the most important ones. How I wish we can understand that to be near the Lord is to give your life, is to serve, to go to the cross. This is what he is telling the others, let the others be in the world, to have power over people, to tyrannize others, to seek money and power. But not for you! You be near to me, to be in my kingdom, in my glory, to give your life. This is a true Christian, that you have Christ inside of you, to believe this is what leads to life. Christ leads you to be more generous, leads you to live in chastity, leads you to die for the other, to forgive the other, to truly forgive.
If you do not have Christ, it may be the way you are following him. There are two ways to follow Christ. One is to really follow him to the cross, knowing that there you will find heaven. Or do you want to follow him to have power, to be someone, to be more? I am impressed when I see someone who wants to be a priest, but for what? Do you want to serve or be served, to give your life or to save it, to amass money or with material goods, to be a person of power or to be trampled upon. I am not referring only to priests, but also those who want to be truly Christian.
Let us go forward, brothers and sisters, so that the Lord will help us to be able to drink from this chalice, to enter into death, to enter it because there we will experience the resurrection. If today you have thought badly of James and John it is because we have this ambition within us; we want to be. We want to be on top of others, above your spouse, above your boss, above the others in the community, always wanting the top positions, but we do not give ourselves.
Remember that the first place is already occupied, by Jesus Christ, who is the first and the last one. If you want to be first, then we are called to love. The first one is the one who loves and the last one also. He wants to donate himself, who can understand the other, who has mercy on the other, who can forgive.
Let the Lord give us in this Eucharist the chance to enter into this banquet knowing that Christ loves us, that he is with us, that he forgives us once again today of all of our sins. He put us into this feast, that he does not judge us, that he brings us to heaven.